Life and Change
by Songja
Summary: Future fic staring Power Rangers Ninja Storm. Blake returns after a his career with Factory Blue and finds that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Power Rangers and their world is not mine.

Things can change drastically in five years, Blake Bradley mused as he approached the hidden entrance to the Thunder Ninja Academy. The racing season was over and he was looking forward to the change in pace. He walked through the entrance and was going to go in search of Hunter when he heard two ear piercing screams. Dropping his duffel bag and going into a defensive stance did not help a bit as he was suddenly bowled over by two laughing women with huge grins on their faces.

"Blake!" Marah yelled before peppering his face with kisses and Blake couldn't help breaking into a wide grin at her happy shout.

Kapri, meanwhile, had snuggled up to his side and laid her head on his shoulder as Blake moved around until he had his arm slung around her. The two nieces of Lothor had come through and although they both trained at the Wind Ninja Academy, they lived over at the Thunder Academy under the protection of Hunter and Omino Sensei. Blake had never really questioned this before, but as he lay squashed under the two giggling sisters, he wondered how they would react to his news.

"Let him up, girls," Hunter's sardonic voice came from above, "and you, bro, some ninja you are getting taken down by these two." The girls popped up and Kapri grabbed Blake's duffel bag. Hunter extended a hand and pulled his younger brother into a manly hug. "Good to have you here. One of my instructors has the flu. You can fill in." Blake rolled his eyes. "How long you here for?"

Blake shrugged, "Season is over," he said non-committal fashion as he looked over his brother. Hunter had taken over the duties as head instructor of the Thunder Academy. Although Omino Sensei was head of the school, it was well know that Hunter was being groomed to take over when Sensei deemed him ready. "How's the school going?"

Hunter shrugged, "Good, we have got some great students and some great teachers. The student and teacher exchange with the wind ninja school and that has been working out really well."

"You look tired," Blake commented, recognizing the look of exhaustion.

Hunter just grinned, "No rest for the wicked. And speaking of wicked. . ." Hunter trailed off indicating the two sisters that had absconded with Blake's bag.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Blake said coming up to where they had started to spread the contents of his bag all over the tatami mats of a meditation room.

"I bet this is for Tori," Kapri said pulling out a little jewelry box and shaking it next to her ear, "do you think it's a ring?"

"I think this is for Shane," Marah said pulling out a bright red shirt with a famous biking logo on the front, "and this is for Cam," a green shirt went flying, "and this is for," she paused looking up curiously at Blake.

Blake sighed as Hunter disguised a laugh as a cough and they both entered the room. "That's for Watanabe Sensei. He loves old martial arts films," Blake said as he extended his hand for the jewelry box that Kapri was still shaking. He opened the box and showed the girls a pretty pewter broach. "This is for Grandma." He dug into the bag and came up with the presents he brought for the girls and Hunter. "These are for you."

He handed two long flat jewelry boxes to Marah and Kapri who opened their presents with wide eyes. The boxes held gold necklaces with little enameled charms. Marah slipped the necklace over her head and cradled the yellow earth ninja symbol in her hand. "Look, Hunter," Kapri said with a grin proudly displaying her green samurai star.

Blake then tossed two leather bound journals to Hunter. "Teaching journals, very nice," Hunter said with appreciation as he looked at the symbol of the horned beetle on the cover, "but why two?"

Blake tilted his head and gave his brother a small smile, "Why don't you look?"

Hunter shifted the bottom volume to the top and froze. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Blake stood and formally bowed to Hunter, "Sensei, I am offering myself as a permanent instructor to the Thunder Ninja Academy."

Hunter was speechless for a moment and the sisters held their breath. "Any time, any how, any way we can get you to stay here and teach is good for me, Blake," Hunter said with a huge grin and as Blake straightened, Hunter moved in to give him a bruising back slapping hug. Blake smiled and hugged his brother back, before two squealing girls jumped on them knocking them to the ground and squashing the air out of them.

Blake had been at the Thunder Academy for two days and although he loved Hunter like a brother, he was ready to kill him. Blake was in shape. During his time in Factory Blue, he ran daily, practiced his martial arts forms where he could and used the fitness equipment of whatever hotel they were staying at. He often visited other martial arts schools and worked out or used his membership at a national chain of gyms, but on the third morning, his body ached. His major muscle groups had knots and his minor muscle groups had knots on top of those knots.

"Rise and shine, bro, it's another wonderful day to run you through the gauntlet," Hunter's cheerful voice came from the doorway of his room.

"Hunter, I would kill you, but I don't think I can move with all the pain I am in," Blake said with a grimace as he rolled over to his side, every muscle in his body protesting. "I swear the Wind Academy air course wasn't that hard before."

"We beefed ours up," Hunter replied.

"We?"

"Shane and I did about six months ago. Ran us all through it a couple of times, too. Tori and Dustin complained for a week," Hunter said reaching out a hand to pull his brother to his feet.

"What about you and Shane?" Blake asked grimacing and starting to stretch.

"Well, we designed the course for air ninjas. He showed me where I can a get a little boost to help me along," Hunter grinned at the scowl Blake sent his way and shrugged, "Hey; you should see what Tori did to the water course."

"Tori worked on our water course?" Blake asked.

"We're off!" Kapri and Marah stuck their heads around the door and looked at the Thunder brothers. "We should be back for dinner."

"Hey, Marah, you o.k.?" Blake asked. She seemed kind of deflated, not the happy, bubbly Marah that had spent the weekend with them. She nodded and gave him a weak smile and a wave as Kapri pulled her away from the doors.

Blake looked at Hunter but Hunter just shook his head and said, "She's fine and if not, it's something that she has to work to figure out herself."

"You know what it is?" Blake asked.

Hunter nodded and said, "I think the solution is coming sooner than we think. Come on, you get to take the students through the water course today. Should be easier than what I've been putting you through for the past couple of days."

"Yeah," the Navy ranger replied with one more back cracking stretch, "It's been a long time, bro."

"That's o.k.," Hunter replied with a smile, "You'll get it together. I arranged some . . . motivation."

"Motivation?" Blake asked entering the cafeteria where both he and Hunter made a pit stop to where Grandma sat at the table for the youngest students where she dispensed lessons on meal etiquette. After a quick greeting and a peck on the cheek the brothers moved to a table where some of the older students sat.

After Hunter had moved back to the Thunder Academy, he made arrangements for their Grandmother to move into the school with him. Once there, the little woman watched over the ninja students as if they all were her grandchildren. She would often knit and watch the ninjas practice from a small pagoda on the lawn. She would take over the kitchen occasionally and get a bunch of students to mass produce cookies with her. Her health had steadily improved and she soon became a necessary part of the academy. All students and even many of the teachers went to her with their problems where she dispensed love, advice and cookies with a deft hand.

"Yup, and there she is now," Hunter said nodding his head towards where Grandma still sat.

Blake turned and drew in a quick breath. A blond haired angel was pecking Grandma on the cheek and ruffling the hair of the boy sitting next to the older woman. Her familiar smile radiated through the room as she listened attentively to what they young student was saying to her. When the boy turned back to his breakfast, the young woman straightened and began to slip through the room, saying hello to students, clasping shoulders and patting backs. She scanned the room and she froze when her blue eyes met his brown ones. She started running and Blake stood taking a few steps before a laughing bundle of beautiful woman landed in his arms. He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent, before all his aching muscles protested and he gasped in pain.

"Oh, my God, Tori, don't take this the wrong way, but you gotta let me go before I pass out," Blake breathed.

"What! You're hurt?" Tori said with a cry, "What happened?"

"The new air course," Hunter said in smug satisfaction.

Tori shook her head placing her hands on her hips. She frowned at Hunter, "One would think that after all these years, you guys would finally grow up, but clearly that is not the case." Tori placed her hands on Blake's shoulders and for a brief moment her hands glowed and Blake felt like a wave of warm water flowed over his body taking a huge portion of the aches and pains away.

"Wow, where'd you learn that?" Blake said impressed.

"Sensei has had me work on my healing skills," Tori said with a grin. "It's good to see you again. Dustin told us about the Factory Blue autograph signing this weekend at Stormchargers. I- we didn't know you were back here." Her smile dimmed a little, before she took a steadying breath.

"I surprised Hunter, too," Blake said softly, "I've only been back a couple of days and was catching up with Hunter and Grandma. I'm sure Kapri and Marah are telling the guys all about my return."

"And Tori, you are in no position to talk about how us guys are petty and competitive," Hunter said with a slight growl.

"Just because you haven't made it trough the water course without getting wet is no reason to growl at me, Hunter," Tori said loftily.

"I bet I can make it trough without getting wet," Blake said with a cocky grin, in the familiar sibling competitive teasing of his youth.

"I wouldn't be too sure, thunder boy," Hunter responded.

"It's just a simple little water course," Blake mocked.

"Uh, Blake-" Tori tried to break into the conversation.

"I did make it through the 'beefed up' air course. I bet the water course is a snap."

"What are you betting?" Hunter asked suddenly serious.

"Blake-," Tori said worriedly.

"What do you want?" Blake asked.

"You have to take over all my teaching rotations to the Air Academy for the next six months," Hunter said.

"You're on." Blake said and the two brothers shook hands.

Tori put a hand to her forehead, "That was particularly unfair, Hunter," she chided.

Hunter just grinned at her in a superior manner, "You got suckered, Blake," he said to the navy ninja, "Tori can't even make it through the course without getting wet."

"What?" Blake asked looking at Tori with a wild look in his eyes.

"I can too, Hunter," Tori retorted before sighing and addressing Blake, "I designed the course so that the students would get wet. It takes agility, speed and balance to get through the course. Really advanced water ninjas can get through the course dry, but it takes real effort, even for me. It is not a competition to see who can get through the course without getting wet, that's just how the guys try and do it. All with spectacular failures, I may add."

"I almost made it," Hunter protested.

"Yes, by using Dustin as a stepping stone, Shane as an umbrella and Cam to carry you up the slope. While I admire the ingenuity, you still got wet," Tori said with a grin as she ruffled his already messy hair. She looked at Blake, "Cam lost his grip and they went plunging into the base of the waterfall managing to knock both Shane and Dustin off the cliff on their way."

Blake snorted in laughter before realizing that his brother had suckered him into a losing bet. "Hey!" he shouted at Hunter, "That was not fair."

Hunter just grinned, "All's fair in love and war, Bro. All's fair."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer on Chapter 1

"Hey, Grandma Bradley," Tori said approaching the pagoda where Grandma and Omino Sensei often watched the ninjas train.

"Hello, Tori. That was quite a spectacular display of your water powers today." The older woman smiled in welcome and continued to knit and scan the field occasionally as if to see that all her children were where they were supposed to be and doing what they were supposed to do.

Tori smiled indulgently at Grandma Bradley. The older woman had quickly become the heart of the Thunder Ninja Academy and was adored by all of the wind ninjas who had come to visit. Tori settled into a chair next to the older woman. "The water ninjas are doing well. I think Hunter is glad that Blake is back to take over more of training during the off season. I'm also going to recommend that Tahnee take over some of the basic water classes, she's doing extremely well," Tori said with a smile.

"Then you will be traveling less," Grandma replied with a smile. The Thunder Ninja Academy mostly trained ninjas in the art of thunder. However since the new relationship with the Wind Academy, they had branched to include small training groups of water, air and earth training. Hunter taught a Thunder section at the Wind School. Shane, Dustin and Tori took turns teaching the element portions with Watanabe and Omino Sensei.

"I have to talk to Hunter. It will be nice to spend more time with the Wind ninjas. Not that I don't adore all the students here, but it is difficult and time consuming to cater training to two different schools of ninjas. It will be nice to have some time for myself, too. We can't stay away too long, Grandma, what would we do without your cookies?" Tori said with a smile.

Grandma frowned before saying, "I think Hunter wanted Marah to eventually take over teaching the earth ninjas, but she seems to be having some difficulty lately. Her control has been sporadic. She hasn't been very happy lately. She was quite herself this weekend. We are all happy that Blake is back."

Tori frowned. She was too often at the Thunder Academy, now. Any time spent at Blue Bay was spent at the Wind Academy with her students. She and the guys had been so busy training and teaching that they hardly spent any fun time together anymore. Well, time with the guys was generally fun, just that it was always at the school. "I haven't talked to Marah, lately," Tori said with a grimace, "or with Kapri much. I've kind of just been getting updates from Cam and Dustin."

"What does Dustin say?" Grandma asked.

"That her training is going fine. That all his students are doing fine," Tori frowned, "but if her control is getting spotty, I'd better talk to all the teachers about it."

Grandma Bradley looked out over the field again and saw Blake correcting a student while Hunter demonstrated a new technique. "I guess you will be seeing a bit of Blake over at the Wind School," she noted with a smirk, turning back to her knitting.

Tori rolled her eyes, "I don't know what gets into them sometimes. Despite the bet, Hunter won't be able to stay away. More than any of us, Hunter and Shane look at all the academy students as 'their' students. I certainly will appreciate the help, though, and it will be good time to go over how closely the two schools are now integrated while he's here during off season." Something about that statement didn't sit right with Tori, but she couldn't get a grasp of what that was.

"It was fairly amusing to see Blake get dunked at the river," Grandma said.

"It was also amusing that I soaked Hunter for laughing at Blake," Tori said smugly.

"I think the students really enjoyed the impromptu water fight," Grandma smiled and her fingers flew.

"That's one of the best things about being a teacher," Tori said softly, "The training is important, the skills are necessary, the strength, power, confidence. The best thing, however, is the joy, the laughter, the sense of being part of a whole and that the whole is what is important." Tori paused for a second, her eyes narrowed. "Marah doesn't have that joy, anymore." Tori stood, a gleam in her eye, "Thank you, Grandma. I have an earth ninja butt to kick."

Grandma just smiled and pulled a paper sack out of her knitting basket. "For Dustin to make him feel better. You know, after the butt kicking."

Tori took the bag, bowed and with a kiss to Grandma's weathered cheek, she streaked away.

Grandma looked up to see that the students were formally dismissed. A few of them wandered off to the dormitories, some wandered down to the water course and some to the air course and some to the forest where most of the earth training was done. A few students continued to practice techniques.

"Did Tori just leave?" Blake asked a little disappointed, as he walked up to the pagoda. He had seen Tori talking to Grandma, and he saw the streak just before class ended. He had hoped that he could steal her away for a moment for a talk.

"She said she had some business to take care of at the Wind school," Grandma said putting away her project, "Be a dear and take my basket in?" As Blake picked up the knitting basket in one arm, he offered his Grandmother the other arm, which she took, "Don't worry, Blake, I'm sure she will be back soon enough."

Tori arrived at the Wind Ninja Academy just as classes were winding down. She watched carefully as Shane and Dustin ran the students through drills, techniques and forms. While Shane demonstrated and called instructions from the platform, Dustin wove his way through the student ranks, correcting and giving encouragement. A smile and a nod, a "good work" or a gentle "turn slightly" spoken softly or a pat on the shoulder was Dustin's way of interacting with students.

"Again, Marah," Dustin's voice was suddenly harsh. Tori started at the tone. Marah looked down at her feet like a kicked puppy and tried the technique again. Loose limbed and without much power, Dustin was able to catch the weak punch she threw, "Once more." This time, Tori saw Marah grit her teeth and perform the technique again. "Still needs work," Dustin shook his head and moved on to the next student.

Tori saw Marah droop and continue to follow Shane's instructions. Tori furrowed her brow and wondered who to talk to first. This question was solved, however, when Watanabe Sensei appeared at her side. "Sensei," Tori said turning and bowing to the head of the school.

"How was the Thunder Academy today?" Sensei asked in his soothing voice.

"Blake is back. He's teaching at the school. Hunter and Grandma Bradley are very glad he is home."

"Yes, Kapri and Marah could not wait to tell the others. They seem very attached to the brothers," Sensei offered.

"Speaking about Marah," Tori started.

"Ah, you have noticed the discontent of our earth ninja?" Sensei said, "She is a good student and a very sweet niece, however, her training seems to be suffering."

Tori nodded and watched again as Dustin corrected Marah without a hint of encouragement and moved on. "I think it has something more to do with just Marah and her training. It may have something to do with the trainer," Tori said sadly.

"Moving from student to teacher is always a difficult assignment. You have all done very well, however, each of you also have baggage from the time you were students."

Tori grinned, "I know. I push the girls harder than I do the guys. I give them more encouragement and spend more time with them. Shane tends to be a little too serious and tries to steer Dustin and I into teaching a certain way. Dustin tends to still think of himself as a student when he should be thinking more like a teacher."

"And Cam?" Sensei asked.

"Cam is, as usual, over thinking and trying so hard to make his program technically correct, that he forgets that his students are people, not computers," Tori paused, "Oh."

"Ah, it seems you don't only need to speak with one teacher, but all of them. Tori, one of your strengths is that you can stand back and see the big picture. You can see what the individuals need. Although you complain about them being boys and are exasperated by their antics, you have always been there for them. They needed you then, to be the peacemaker, calm, reasonable and practical. They still need you now. Both Wind and Thunder Schools need you. And they always will," Sensei said with a smile.

"Will you help me, Sensei?" Tori asked, humbled by her teacher's words.

"I will always be there to help you, Tori," he replied, squeezing her shoulder affectionately before walking away.

Tori turned back to the field where Shane was dismissing the students. Tori took a moment to walk up to Marah. "Hey, Marah. Wow, what a gorgeous necklace."

Marah's face lit up into a genuine smile, "It's a present from Blake," she said proudly, "Kapri got one with a Samurai star." Her face fell a little, "I wish I was training to be a samurai."

Tori tilted her head to the side and then pulled on Marah's arm. "Hey, Shane, I've got to talk to Marah, will you tell Kapri to go ahead back to the Thunder school?"

"Sure, Tori," he said giving her a puzzled look before shrugging and turning to talk to another student.

Tori led Marah to the lake outside the waterfall and they sat in a clearing. "Is this a sensei-student moment?" Marah asked uncomfortably.

Tori smiled and said gently, "Even if it is, I would like to think we are friends, too. Marah, you want to tell me what's going on in your head?"

"I just am so frustrated. Kapri has it easy, she had no element affinity and she never seems to have any trouble with her lessons. I had a choice, you know, to be an air ninja or an earth ninja. I chose earth because, oh, so many reasons that seem stupid now, you know, girl reasons," Marah flashed Tori a sad smile, "I guess those reasons weren't good enough."

"I'm going to tell you something, Marah," Tori said, "something I never have told anyone else. Hunter asked me out, once. Everyone knew I had a crush on Blake and that Blake liked me, but he went off to ride with Factory Blue and after a couple of years, when we were setting up the exchange program, I was spending all that time at the Thunder School, Hunter asked me out. I turned him down. I thought I might come in between Blake and Hunter. I always thought I liked Blake and to be interested in Hunter seemed like a betrayal of sort."

"So you were interested in Hunter?" Marah asked, wide-eyed.

Tori shrugged, "So I made a choice, a silly, girly choice based on nothing concrete. It was just dinner and a movie, not some passionate affair and it wasn't even as if I had even kissed Blake. And it was confusing and it kind of hurt, but I went on. I'm just letting you know that sometimes we make decisions based on silly, girly reasoning, but the whole thing with Hunter and Blake didn't stop me from working with them, working out with them.

Marah, you are a good student. You have talent and heart. You have all the qualities of a good earth ninja. So what if you thought being an earth ninja would get you more time with Dustin," Tori said gently and was amused to see Marah blush, "So things didn't work out exactly as you would have liked. Don't let that stop you from being the best earth ninja you can be."

"But, Dustin," Marah started with a worried look in her eyes.

"Don't worry about Dustin. I watched class today. Something is up with him, too. And I will find out. But, just like this is a sensei-student thing. What I discuss with him will be a sensei-sensei thing, so don't expect any explanations."

Marah shook her head with a smile on her face, "Thanks, Tori, you really helped."

"Thank Grandma when you get back," Tori said with a wink as she stood. Marah took the hand that Tori offered and was pulled to her feet into a hug by the shorter girl. "You can always talk to me if you need help, Marah, you and Kapri both."

"Thanks Tori," Marah said using the heel of her hand to wipe away a dab of moisture beneath her eye. "I think I'm going to go on a short run, clear my head, you know, before going home?"

"No problem, stay on the usual trails," Tori said with a smile and a wave as she watched Marah take off through the trees. "Now," Tori growled, "I get to find Dustin."

Cam and Kapri were just about to finish their lesson when Shane approached the pair. There were so few students that had no affinity with even one of the elements that Cam's classes were very small and he was able keep many of the teaching sessions private. Kapri was Cam's most advanced student.

Noticing Shane's approach, they turned and bowed to Shane and Shane returned the courtesy. "Tori and Marah are off the woods to have a talk. She asked that you go home without her." The way Cam and Kapri looked at each other, encouraged Shane to ask, "Is something up with Marah?"

Kapri shrugged, "Her control has kind of been off lately. Not badly, but Hunter's a little worried, too."

"Let's finish up and you can head home and tell the brothers that Marah's going to be home late. I'll make sure she gets home safe," Cam said bowing to Kapri to formally finish the lesson. Kapri bowed and nodded giving Shane and Cam a quick hug and kiss to the cheek before smiling a little sadly and streaking away.

"Everything fine with Kapri?" Shane asked.

"She's coming along well," Cam said, "I think she can start taking over basic classes at the Thunder Academy next year. She needs a little more work, but since Blake is back for the summer, there is another high level teacher there that can help her. Hunter just didn't have the time to do much one on one training with her. Mostly he had her helping him keep all the school paperwork straight."

"Yeah, it's a good thing you got us computerized and got them up and running, too. More time to hang out now that Blake is back," Shane said with his characteristic grin, "We can go riding, and hang out at the beach. It's going to be good to have some free time now that there's another teacher for the summer. Oh, and don't forget the Factory Blue signing on Saturday. Kellie is going to want all of our help, if possible, you know, the usual, sales, keep people in line, clean up."

"Sure," Cam said with a smile, "You guys can count on me." He clapped Shane on the back, "I'm going to check in with Dad that everyone left safely and do a last sweep of the grounds."

"Dude, you worry way too much about that monitoring stuff."

"That's how we remain a 'secret' ninja academy, Shane," Cam replied with a shake of the head. "Tori driving you guys home?"

"Nah, Dustin and I brought our bikes today because Tori was over at the Thunder School this morning. I'll catch you later, bro."

Shane changed from his teaching outfit to street clothes before going to the hidden entrance near the waterfall. He slipped through the portal and was surprised to see Marah, still in uniform running the 5-mile trail. He sighed wondering how he was going to fix the problem that was rapidly developing between the friends. Perhaps, he'd go over to Hunter's tonight after he spoke with Kellie about the signing this weekend. Moving to his bike, he again smiled at the converted Tsunami cycle that was he main mode of transportation when Tori was unavailable with the van, he hopped on and tore off towards town and Stormchargers.

Tori wandered the re-built ninja ops looking for Dustin. He was no where on the grounds, but his bike was sitting in the parking lot next to her van, so she knew he was still around. She roamed to the old Zord bay which was now just Cam's workshop of electronic gadgets and through some of the training and meditation rooms until she found him, just sitting looking out over the running trails where she could see a figure in the distance running.

"Dustin?" Tori said softly as she entered the room. Dustin looked up at her with a smile on his face, but it looked forced. Tori's smile reflected her worry. "Keeping an eye on Marah?" she asked with a teasing tone in her voice as she moved to sit next to one of her best friends and bumped her shoulder into his.

"I'm doing something wrong, Tori," Dustin said in a deflated tone of voice. "I mean, Shane was always the leader. We'd follow him anywhere and Cam was always the smart, steady one, you can depend on him like a rock. You, Tor, you are our heart, you keep us together. Me, I'm just the goofball; I'm not cut out for this."

"Cut out for what?" Tori asked gently.

"Teaching," Dustin replied flatly as he threw himself back to lie on the tatami mats. He threw an arm over his eyes before continuing, "I tried to be like Shane. His students are so focused and disciplined. They take learning seriously, but I just felt like I was going to have a goofball moment and ruin the whole image and I started getting so nervous that I was going to mess up I was feeling nauseous before each class. Then I tried to be like you, calm and soothing, but I felt all girly, no offense," he shot a look at Tori's face and noticed her grin, "Then I tried to be laid back like Cam is, but then I felt that they weren't learning enough and that I had to push them harder. I think I'd better tell Sensei to find someone else to teach the earth techniques."

"Now why would you think that?" Tori said, "Dustin, the students love you. You of all of us make the learning fun. Shane is great, and he is really well respected, but you know there are times when he gets too serious and intense. He sometimes intimidates the students. You have a much more hands on approach and the students feel like you can relate to them. Cam is lucky because he only has a few students. He can build really close relationships with them and he just seems laid back. He's a pretty serious teacher and expects a lot from his students. Me, I have doubts about my teaching, too." She wrapped a hand around his and squeezed. "It was the scariest thing today, letting Blake see how I had been training the water students at the Thunder Academy. I know I worked hard with Hunter to develop a curriculum that maintained the style of the Thunder Ninja, but I included lots of stuff I learned here, too. I don't teach the same way they were taught. It was like I was being judged, not only by Hunter and Omino Sensei, but really by Blake. What if I had messed up?"

"Whoa, you had a tough day, too, huh? We didn't even think about that," Dustin said sitting up and looking deeply at Tori to see if she was upset.

"You didn't even know Blake was back until Marah and Kapri told you guys," Tori said in rebuke.

"So did he say anything? Blake? Did he tell you that you were a horrible teacher and stuff? Cause, Shane and Cam and Sensei and I, well, maybe not Sensei, but we could go over there and kick his ass," Dustin said earnestly, before a twinkle came into his eye and he teased, "or was he just watching your-?"

Tori narrowed her eyes at Dustin and shook her head, "Don't even go there. I don't know why I put up with you."

"Cause I'm your best friend?"

"Can I ask you something?" Tori said looking over the forest and seeing a streak of orange and green take off into the sky. "What's up with Marah?"

"Nothing," Dustin replied, "I mean, she's a student and she's a friend."

"Why were you so hard on her in class today?"

"You were watching?" at Tori's nod, Dustin sighed, "About three months ago, Hunter asked me when I would have a senior student that could help him teach the earth techniques at the Thunder Academy. They have lots of talented students and the program just wasn't taking off with me there only half the time. He asked specifically about Marah.

"I guess I started really looking at where she was, and where we were when we started teaching, so I started to push her a little harder, instead of getting better, her control got worse, so I pushed a little harder and now I don't know how to fix it. It's just so disappointing and I feel like I'm failing her, I'm failing Hunter and that I'm a failure myself."

"Is the only reason you looked at Marah was because Hunter asked?"

"Well, yeah," Dustin said. Tori sighed at tilted her head with a small smile and looked at Dustin expectantly. Dustin thought through the process, Hunter asked, Marah, Teacher, Marah does not exactly have to equal teacher.

Dustin groaned, "I could send one of my senior earth students. Some of them could really teach the beginning classes well," Dustin dropped his head with a sigh, "I messed up again, huh? I was too fixated on Marah, I wanted to push her and present her to Hunter like 'look what I did,' but it's not about me, it's about her."

"I think Hunter would think any of your senior students would be a great help to his teaching program. I think Marah is going to be a wonderful earth ninja. And mostly Dustin," she said waiting for Dustin to look at her before finishing, "I think you are an awesome teacher."

"Thanks, Tori," Dustin said, this time with a genuine smile. "I've missed this, you know, just the three of us, and then the four of us with Cam. It seems like so long ago and with you going over to the Thunder Academy when I'm here and vice versa."

"I know. That's why, in honor of Blake's return, we are going to have a party at the beach house on Sunday afternoon. We'll have all the gang and the Senseis and some of the students. You could introduce some of your earth students to Hunter and Omino Sensei. It will be great!" Tori said standing. "I've got to get Cam to help me."

"Why Cam?" Dustin asked standing, "Shane and I can help."

"And don't think you won't," she said leaning over to kiss his cheek, "but you guys are going to be busy this next week helping Kellie set up Stormchargers for the Factory Blue signing, so don't worry too much about my party, o.k.?"

"O.k., Tor, we won't. If I haven't said this, Tor, you know you're the best, right?"

Tori grinned at him and pulled out the package of Grandma Bradley's cookies. Tossing them casually to him, she said, "I know I am."


	3. Chapter 3

Saturday was promising to be a beautiful day and Hunter, Blake, Marah and Kapri were ready to head out to Blue Bay for the Factory Blue signing. Blake was especially excited for a couple of reasons. The Factory Blue was like family and he had been part of that family for five years. As much as he loved being back with his brother and the other ninja rangers, he missed his friends on the circuit. He was also nervous about his announcement. Although Hunter and the girls knew he was back for good, the wind ninjas and the rest of the racing community did not. Most of Factory Blue just thought he was on post-season vacation like they were. He was at the height of his racing career, they wouldn't understand, but he thought he could handle that. He'd just show them Tori.

"Tori's meeting us at the Wind Ninja School with the van and we'll go down. I promised Kelli

we would be there by eight to help set up and stuff," Hunter said with a smile, "I didn't tell Kel that you would be there early."

"Surprise!" Marah said with a hop and a happy clap, "I love surprises."

Kapri just rolled her eyes at her still ditzy younger sister as she prepared to streak over the Wind Ninja Academy. "Don't get lost." Kapri said sternly to her sister.

"I haven't gotten lost since that last time," Marah started with a pout.

"That last time, last week?" Hunter asked teasing the girl.

"I was by myself," Marah whined.

Blake smothered a laugh. He wondered why Cam had come back with Marah the other night. Clearly, everyone tried not to let Marah travel alone. "Come on, Marah, I'll hold onto you," Blake said with a smile. In good humor again, Marah took his arm and four streaks of light moved through the morning sky.

Landing in the grove area outside of Ninja Ops, the four quickly changed into civilian clothes and moved through the forest to where Tori and the guys usually parked when going to teach at the academy. Four smiles lit up as they found Tori's blue van sitting in the clearing and the girl waiting for them. Tori hugged each of them before the group climbed into the van and headed towards Blue Bay.

"It's really cool that you got Roger Hannah to agree to do a post season signing at Stormchargers again," Tori said as they started down the hill, with Blake in the front seat.

"Yeah," Blake said, "After all Kelli did for Hunter and I while we were here before. I convinced Roger that it would be awesome publicity and it's a good way for the riders to get one last charge out of the season, but without all the pressure."

"Not to mention you get a lot of the attention, you know, local boy does good."

"Man, I hope Kelli doesn't make me work the register this time," Hunter complained from the back seat, "last time, there were so many sales my head was spinning."

"No, Marah, Kapri and I are running the registers, you, Dustin and Shane are doing sales on the floor," Tori replied.

"Who's doing crowd control?" Blake asked.

"Afraid you're going to get mobbed?" Kapri teased.

"Nah, just, you know, it can get crazy," Blake said.

"Oh, don't worry, thunder boy, it's all taken care of."

"We're here!" Marah exclaimed opening the door before Tori actually stopped the van and practically jumping out of the slow moving vehicle.

"Marah!" Kapri said shaking her head and following the excited girl, "I swear, one day, you are going to get seriously hurt, then, I'm going to seriously hurt you!"

Marah was already through the back door of Stormchargers announcing that they had arrived with the scolding Kapri right behind her. Hunter, Blake and Tori just smiled at the sister's antics and unloaded themselves from the van. "Let's go around front," Blake said, "I want to see the set up."

The three ninjas walked around to the front of the store where a large tent was set up for the signing with ropes strung for lines. There were colored flags hung around the front of the store with huge posters of the Factory Blue team and flyers announcing the signing. There was a snack cart with drinks and a small stage area with a microphone and DJ set up for music. "This is going to be awesome!" Blake said.

"It just gets bigger every year," Hunter replied.

"Yeah, I bet Kelli already is planning next years," Tori said with a smile as she head to the front door, expecting that the boys were following her.

However, Blake had pulled Hunter aside and asked worriedly, "Dude, how do I tell Kelli that this might be the last year that Factory Blue comes to do the signing? I mean, Roger started doing this as a favor to me. If I'm no longer riding with the team, I don't know if he'll continue to come and do this event."

"Bro, relax, if it doesn't happen it doesn't matter. Kelli's a smart business woman. She's kept this place afloat for a long time. Even if this doesn't happen next year, no big deal, man," Hunter said, "You can't live your life for the other guy, Blake."

Blake shrugged and looked at his brother, "The last five years was all about me," he said.

"And before that, we were out there saving the world, it was never about us. Balance, bro. Remember?"

Blake shrugged and looked around wistfully knowing that this was the last year that he would be the star of the show. He looked at the poster with the words, "Blue Bay's own Blake Bradley" on a banner across the front. Next year, he would be just like all the other guys, working with Kelli in the store instead of signing autographs and talking to fans.

Marah burst through the doors with a huge smile on her face, "Come on, guys," she said, "why are you still out here? Tori came in ages ago. Dustin can keep his hands over Kelli's eyes for only so long. She's already threatened him with a wrench, twice!"

As the bubbly girl disappeared, Blake smiled as he followed Hunter towards the front of the store. Knowing in his heart that in Blue Bay was where he found home, friends and family so long ago. He had left his heart here and Hunter was right, it was all about balance.

"Surprise!" Marah yelled as the Thunder brothers entered the store, "Dustin, you have to let go of her eyes, now."

"And run away really fast," Hunter said with a grin.

"BLAKE!" Kelli yelled and dove at the young man in a Factory Blue logo racing shirt. Blake hugged his former boss who had given him the opportunity to follow his dream and was hugged fiercely in return. "I thought the team was going to arrive at about 9:30."

"I've been back staying with Hunter since last week. It was a surprise!"

"Surprise for all of us," Shane said as Kelli moved away and Shane moved in to give Blake a male bonding half hug with back slapping. Dustin moved in next, then Cam. Marah then pushed Kapri in Blake's way and motioned for Kapri to hug him, which she did half heartedly with a glare at her sister, which Marah ignored as she happily put herself in Blake's way to give him a hug, then pushed him towards Tori.

"You've got to give Tori a hug, too," Marah said with a huge grin on her face, "You hugged Kelli and Kapri and me. Don't want Tori to feel left out."

Tori bit her lip nervously as Blake just shrugged and gave her a big smile, obviously amused by Marah's blatant attempt to get Tori and him in close proximity. "It's just a hug, Tor," Blake said softly with a wink. Tori just shrugged, but didn't look at him as she moved in for a hug. "I missed you," he whispered into her hair as he held onto her for just a moment longer.

Tori pulled back and Blake reluctantly let her go. "Come on, how could you miss me, Mr. Big Shot Racer Man?" she said with a bright smile and a second later, Dustin, Shane and Cam swooped in to hear all about Blake's latest season.

"He did miss you, you know," Hunter said gently as the boys moved to the couch area and Kelli took Kapri and Marah to review the cash registers one last time before the event. Tori looked up into Hunter's blue eyes before looking wistfully back at Blake, "Look, Tor, I know I asked you out and stuff, but that was really because I like you. I didn't realize that you were still hung up on Blake."

"I'm not hung up on Blake. I can't be hung up on Blake. How do you have a relationship with a guy who is not only not in the same city or state you are in, but is never in the same place from week to week?"

Hunter bit back a sigh and then shrugged his shoulders before pointing out, "Other people do it."

"Yeah, and other people are also ninja and former power rangers. Oh, no, that would only be us." Tori said sarcastically.

"You have been spending too much time with Cam."

"Funny, Cam says I spend too much time with you."

Hunter snorted in amusement before saying, "If it wasn't Blake, why wouldn't you go out with me? Why, in the past four years, have you never dated a guy more than twice?"

"How would you know that? Have you been clocking my dating habits?" Tori said in shock.

Hunter ran a hand through his hair and gave her a sheepish smile, "Well, we all kind of look out for each other, you know, and since you're the only girl."

"Was the only girl," Tori said flatly, "Are you also monitoring Marah and Kapri's dating habits? Doing a documentary, The Dating Habits of the Female Ninja?"

"Damn, you can't blame us, especially after that last time. It was Cam's idea," Hunter said in frustration.

"What did I do now?" Cam replied from across the room.

Hunter growled and turned back to Tori, only to find her gone out the front door. After a second, he knew there were a few more things that he needed to tell her and headed out the door after her.

"What was up with that?" Blake said shooting an odd look at the door. He might want to follow after his brother and Tori, but he was hemmed in by the wind ninjas.

"I don't know," Kapri said walking up to the group of boys. Kelly had disappeared into the back storeroom and Marah was following Kapri although her eyes were riveted on the two figures walking across the parking lot outside of the shop. "I think Hunter may still have a thing for Tori. He asked her out, but Tori turned him down. She just kind of casually dates guys once or twice before like never seeing them again. Do you think he asked her out again?" She blinked at the shocked look on all the boy's faces, "What, you didn't know?"

"Again? How did you know he asked her out before?" Marah asked with a pout. "Tori said she didn't tell anyone but me."

"Because Hunter asked me about asking her out before he asked her out."

"Why didn't he ask me?"

"Because you can't keep a secret to save your life," Kapri said with a sigh and a consoling rub to Marah's shoulder. Marah thought about this and nodded at that truth before smiling once again.

"Wait, wait. Hunter has a thing for Tori? He asked her out? When was this? How come I didn't know about this? Why didn't Hunter tell me? Why didn't Tori?" Blake said stunned. Hunter had never said anything like that to him.

"Sure, like Hunter was going to tell you that he had a thing for a girl that you liked for forever. And Tori didn't want to come between you and Hunter. She knows how close you two are." Kapri said as she looked at her nails.

"Well, yeah, that would figure. Come on, we've all had a thing for Tori one time or another," Dustin said and he smiled before hitting Shane on the arm, "remember when you tried to serenade her?"

"Yeah," Shane said with a small laugh, "we were like twelve and you were supposed to play your sax as back up, but then your sax squeaked really loud and I started laughing, then you started laughing."

"And then her mother opened the window because we were on the wrong side of the house and under her parent's window not hers," Dustin said and the two boys gave each other a high five as they chuckled about their failed attempt.

"Sounds like one of your finer moments," Cam said with a smirk on his face.

"Oh, don't go there, we know all about the flowers that used to show up on Tori's van after practice and that sure wasn't Dustin or me," Shane said pointing at the samurai ranger.

Cam gaped like a trout for a second before retorting, "That could have been any one of the students at the academy."

"Dude, don't even try to deny it. We staked out the van once and watched you," Dustin replied with a smug grin.

"And since we are recapping our humiliating attempts to woo Tori, what did you do?" Cam asked Dustin trying to move the focus away from him.

"We had lunch together, I got to hold her hand and I got to kiss her," Dustin said smugly. Everyone's mouths dropped open at this pronouncement. "We were in first grade. We went to play on the monkey bars at recess, we had our lunch together and I kissed her on the cheek." His face fell into one of confusion, "I don't get why she slugged me, though." He rubbed his cheek remembering the first time Tori had hit him. Boy was he glad now that she wasn't training as a ninja back then, that punch would have hurt more.

A moment of stunned silence caused Dustin to look up, and then the whole group broke up into laughter. "What?" Dustin asked confused with a grin on his face. "Hey, I got further than any one of you other guys."

"Oh, man," Blake said slapping Dustin on the back, "you are a regular ladies man."

"Damn straight," Dustin said proudly taking the words as a compliment as the group laughed.

Then, Blake looked out the window towards Hunter who had caught up to Tori and the two of them looked like they were having a serious conversation. He remembered back to when he and Hunter had first met Tori. His comment on how Tori was hot and Hunter agreed. Had his bro been interested in Tori as far back as then, but didn't do anything because Blake was more vocal about his interest? Dude, it looked like he and Hunter needed to talk.

"Tori, Tori!" Hunter called following her out the door. Tori stood in front of the signing table, fiddling with the signing pens, posters, and name cards on the table. "Tori, look it wasn't like we were keeping tabs on you."

"Oh yeah," Tori asked not looking at him, "then what would you call it."

"Tori, look," Hunter waited until Tori turned to face him with her arms crossed, casually leaning against the table. "For a long time, you were the only girl and I know that was hard sometimes," Tori just arched a brow, "O.k. maybe all the time," Tori now shook her head and Hunter ran a hand through his hair. "O.k. maybe I don't know how hard it was, but you, you were the most important thing to us, to all of us. Each of us depended on you and needed you to keep on going. You gave us something to believe in and something to fight for. And we knew you were smart and could take care of yourself. And it totally helped that you were hot." Tori snorted at that comment and Hunter flashed a smile, "You were the one who trusted Blake and me, and you were always the first to forgive any of us guys when we screwed up. You always believed in us even when we didn't believe in ourselves. Come on, Tori, how could we not fall in love with you?

"Back then, Blake was more open, more trusting than me. I was so caught up in taking care of him and being the older, serious, responsible one. I didn't have room for anything more than maybe friendship, and Blake was so totally into you.

"Don't get on me or the guys for trying to watch out for you. Not after we saw you get hurt. So we kept tabs on you when you went out with guys. Can you blame us? If any of them had hurt you, there would have been such smack down. But we had to know who to smack down, because nobody hurts our Tori."

Tori gave Hunter a wry smile, "I bet you guys had a system all set up, huh? You guys took weeks or months. I bet if I ask Cam he'll even show me the schedule with every date I've had over the past year or so."

Hunter managed to look abashed and he looked away with a pained expression, "Yeah, well- -Hey, check it out. It's the guys from Reefside!" Hunter blew out a sigh of relief as Tori turned and smiled she moved past him to see a black jeep and a red sports car pull into the parking lot.

Suddenly Tori turned and looked at Hunter, tilting her head to the side with a slight smile, "You know you guys are the most important people in my life, right? I wouldn't be who I am without you." Her eyes suddenly narrowed, "and don't think that Marah and Kapri haven't been monitoring your dating habits. They occasionally give me an update that I really don't need or want about who you guys are seeing." She was satisfied to see a bit of a panic bleed into his face, "I love you, too, Hunter."

"Tori!" Kira yelled jumping out of Connor's red sports car and racing across the parking lot to give the former blue ranger a hug. "God help me from being the only girl. That was too long in the car with only the guys and Connor drives as if his car is a raptor cycle."

Tori laughed and slung an arm around Kira as the two girls and Hunter walked up to meet the crew piling out of the two vehicles. "Thanks for coming, guys; Kelli is going to be so thrilled that she has some extra people to help. Tori moved to hug Dr. Oliver, Haley, Trent, Ethan and Connor. Hunter shook hands and exchanged hellos.

Instructing the crowd to follow her, Tori turned to walk back to Stormchargers, but was startled, when Hunter walked up next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. Tori looked up at him, with a question in her eyes, but Hunter just leaned in and squeezed her shoulders before giving her a peck on the forehead whispering, "Friends?" Tori slipped her arm around Hunter's waist and when they reached the door, ushered the crowd in.

Everyone was staring silently at Tori and Hunter. Tori narrowed her eyes at the crowd before going up on her toes to whisper in Hunter's ear, "Uh-huh. It seems that we are the topic of conversation. And in two seconds, I am going to abandon you to the sharks," she said indicating the still silent crowd. She looked over at the boys, still gaping and then grit her teeth before pulling the startled Hunter to face her. She leaned up, kissed him casually on the mouth and turned towards the back room yelling to Kelli that their friends from Reefside where here and she was needed out front.

"Woah, did you see that?" Dustin said in shock. Shane and Cam nodded their heads, their mouths hanging open.

"Wow, was that dreamy," Marah said with a giggle, "Kapri, I may seriously need to rethink my plan about trying to get Tori and Blake to acknowledge their feelings for each other." The guys all turned startled looks to Marah and Kapri just dropped her face in her hands and shook her head.

"Bro?" Blake asked with an odd look on his face, "is there something you need to tell me?"

"I- she- I-," Hunter stammered looking at Blake, then Marah, then to where Tori disappeared in the back, to the Reefside people who were standing with confused looks on their faces, "She and I-"

"Dude," Connor said sliding up to clap the flabbergasted Hunter on the back, "Tori is H-O-T." His smile faded as he received glares from the five ninja males. He stepped back raising his hands, "Or, maybe not." For which Kira punched him in the arm causing him to cringe.

Just then, Roger Hannah walked in the door and zeroed in on Blake. "Hey, Blake!"

Blake turned to see his manager and gave him a smile. All sorts of options ran through his brain. He had told only Roger and his 'family' at the Thunder Academy that he was staying. Maybe he should change his mind again. He didn't know what to think seeing Tori and Hunter together. He didn't think he could handle days and weeks, months and years of that. He'd just go back and ride with Factory Blue. With these thoughts running through his head, he moved forward to meet Roger and the other Factory Blue riders, there where introductions, hand shaking, and Kelli with a huge grin on her face appeared to order people to their places. No one noticed that Tori had disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still not mine

By ten o'clock, it was a beautiful, breezy day in Blue Bay Harbor and there were throngs of people outside Stormchargers. A very good DJ was mixing tunes, while the Reefsiders assisted with crowd control. Factory Blue riders were chatting with the crowd, signing posters and having a blast.

Inside Stormchargers chaos reigned. The guys could barely keep up with the crowd as merchandise flew off the shelves. Marah, Kapri, and Tori, who had returned just as the store opened to the public, were furiously working the special order table and register. Kelli flew in and out directing the guys on the floor, seeing that everything was going well with the signing and checking the tally on the cash registers.

At noon, Tommy Oliver managed to corner Kelli, "Hey, you have got to take a breather."

"No time," she said with a smile, "Isn't this great?"

"Yeah, but you're going to fall down in exhaustion if you don't get off your feet and get something in you." He dug in his pockets until he found a cereal bar. "I hope you like strawberry, because you are going to sit for five minutes, chomp this down and have a bottle of water." He steered Kelli into a spare chair and called to Trent to bring him a bottle of water from a cooler in the signing tent.

"Thank you guys so much for coming again this year." Kelli said with a smile. "Haley is an organizational whiz and your kids are so good."

"Not my kids," Tommy said with a smile, but with pride in his voice, "and they aren't so much kids anymore. Connor and Ethan graduate from college next year and Trent has his own comic book, now. Kira has regular gigs at more than just Haley's and is actually putting out an independent album next year, I think."

"You'll have to let me know," Kelli replied, "The crowds have loved hearing her for the past couple of years. I'm sure I could sell a bunch of her cds."

"Look, she's tuning up. I'll let her know that you want to sell her stuff. I'm sure she will appreciate it."

It was one o'clock and the official signing was over. Blake stood and thanked Connor who was stationed next to him. He moved to the small stage over on the side where he was to announce Kira. His mind was whirling with what he was going to say.

The crowd was thinning at Stormchargers now that the signing was over and Tori took a minute to let out a sigh of relief. Dustin and Shane were sprawled out on two of the couches while Cam was talking to someone about riding pads and Hunter was talking to a family over by the dirt bikes. "Hey, it looks like Kira is going to sing!" Marah said. Kapri waved them off and Tori and Marah headed outside with Shane and Dustin following.

The found a shady spot under a tree and watched as Blake stepped up to the microphone. "Hey Blue Bay Harbor!" Blake's voice was amplified over the cheers of the crowd. "As always, Factory Blue and Stormchargers want to thank you for coming out today. It's a real treat for us. Now as in the past two years, we have a good friend who's coming out in just a second to give us a little concert, but before she sings, I have an announcement to make." Blake scanned the crowd. He saw Roger standing with Kelli, Haley and Dr. Oliver. Dustin, Shane, Tori and Marah were standing beneath a tree by the parking lot. Marah was happily hopping up and down in her excitement causing Blake to smile. He saw Hunter, Cam and Kapri standing in the doorway of Stormchargers. "I have been riding with Factory Blue for five years, now and I will always be grateful to Roger and the family of riders who helped me to be one of the top motocross racers in the world. Sometimes, though, things have to come to an end." His eyes zeroed in on Tori, "Sometimes, life is more than just an adventure around the world. I've had a great five years, and it's my time to step down to let some of the other truly talented take their place in motocross history. This was last year with Factory Blue and I would like to thank everyone, all my family, my team, my fans, especially those in Blue Bay, who have supported me all these years. Now, I'd like to introduce, an amazing singer and songwriter, Kira Ford!"

Blake left the stage and Kira took the microphone, "Let's give a hand to Blake Bradley, Blue Bay's own Factory Blue rider!" The crowd cheered wildly as Blake moved through the crowd of Factory Blue riders that had gathered at the bottom of the stage expressing their disbelief that one of their star riders was retiring. People were slapping him on the back and giving him hugs, asking him why he was leaving. Blake just smiled and said that it was time.

Kira and her band started into their set as Blake made his way to where his friends were standing and slung an arm around Tori. She smiled at him and gave him a hug before stepping back, but before Blake could throw her a puzzled look, Dustin walked forward and slapped him on the back,

"I can't believe you quit, dude!"

"Retired, Dustin," Shane said with a slap to the back of the former yellow rangers head.

They stood listening to Kira's music watching as the crowd got into the performance. Blake kept up a humorous running commentary about his fellow factory riders as they started to pull out people from the crowd to the front of the stage to dance with them. One rider had a little girl of about three years old holding his hands with her tiny feet on top of his as he danced her around to the amusement of her parents. Another was doing peppy swing with a grey haired grandma. One of the girls had pulled up two older men who had been sitting under a tree playing a game of chess and had them dancing in the crowd.

Connor and Ethan with huge smiles on their faces walked up to the group with Connor's twin brother, Eric. "Senseis!" Connor's double said loudly before he was hushed by the group. He made an apologetic grimace and looked at his feet.

"See, I keep telling you guys that he is a total space case," Connor said to Ethan. The blue ranger just rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe you're retiring, I mean you are at the top of your game!" Ethan said anxiously to Blake.

"How would you know that?" Connor asked confused as to how his computer game obsessed friend would know anything about motocross.

"I've been helping Dr. O keep up with the ranger histories. He had all this old history stuff, but didn't know where all the old rangers were now. Not that I could find all of them, some of them aren't even on the planet anymore, but I found a whole bunch of them. You get a ton of stuff when you google Blake Bradley," Ethan replied.

"I'd like to bring three good friends up here, now. Cam, Shane, Dustin!" Kira called from the stage. "I've been working on an album this year and I was lucky enough to get these guys to come and record with me." Shane, Cam and Dustin walked up to the stage to cheers and applause, especially from the group of former rangers. Cam was carrying a guitar and Dustin his saxophone. Shane adjusted a second microphone for himself and Dustin opened the song with a jazz wail.

"Sweet!" Connor said with a huge smile and a second later, one of the female Factory Blue riders came up and grabbed him and his brother to dance in the crowd in front of the stage. Another one took Ethan by the hand and a couple of young guys grabbed Marah.

Trent came by Blake and Tori and after looking at Connor and Eric with the pretty red head and tilted his head to the side, "Shouldn't we warn her or something?"

Blake choked back a laugh, "Yeah, that's Jeanie, don't worry about her. She has a thing for twins." Trent gave him a horrified look before getting grabbed by another female in the crowd and getting dragged into the mass of dancing bodies.

"Does she really have a thing for twins?" Tori asked amused.

"Nah, but it was too good to pass up," Blake said taking her by the hands and drawing her into the crowd of people, "Dance with me, Tor?" Tori smiled and let him lead her into the crowd of their friends.


	5. Chapter 5

It was four in the afternoon, in Stormcharges, the former rangers, two formerly evil space ninjas and Kelli and Haley sprawled all over the couches and counters of the now closed store. Factory Blue had left with most of the crowd and hired crews were taking down the tents and stage outdoors. "I think I'm more tired this year than I was last year," Kelli said with a moan.

"Another year older," Tommy quipped with a smile.

"One would think I would get wiser with that year. I keep saying to myself this year is the last year, and then Roger calls and I start setting up the whole thing again," Kelli laughed, "but the publicity and the sales are great!" She pushed herself up off the couch with a groan, "I'm ordering pizza."

A number of tired voices shouted out requests and while Kelli went to the office to place their order, the whole room quieted down, once more. After about a minute, Shane rolled off the counter to his feet, "Come on, guys," he said, "the pizza will be here in like half an hour, if we clean up before it gets here, we can just eat and close up."

With a chorus of quiet moans and groans, the tired teens stood and started helping pick up and reorganize the store after the frenzy of the morning sales. Haley and Tommy moved to the cash register to tally the cash deposit and Hunter, Dustin and Shane moved to the supply closet to pull out cleaning supplies. When Kelli came out of the office, it was to a flurry of movement around the store and a group of teenagers singing to a local radio station. She smiled as she leaned against the doorway and thought again how lucky she was to have these guys as friends and employees.

"You guys don't have to do too much," Kelli said with a smile, "I'm coming in tomorrow to do a real cleaning job on the store."

"No, you're not," Tori replied, "You are coming down to the beach house tomorrow at noon and are staying all day. We'll get this all straightened out now."

"Yeah, Kel," Dustin said moving some boxes from the store room to where Marah and Kapri could restock the clothes racks. "Today was work, tomorrow is play, or else you won't get your day off this weekend."

"It'll be a blast," Hunter said, "Cam and Tori have been working really hard on this, there's going to be like thirty people, you have to come."

Blake came out with another box while Cam started moving some of the sold merchandise that was to be picked up later into the back workroom. "Kel, I don't have anything really scheduled yet for my mornings next week," he looked significantly at Shane and Hunter, "I can come down and help you with some of the mechanic work on bikes if you want."

"You already did so much," Kelli protested.

"Dude, Kel," Dustin said with a smile, "take his help, man, I might even concede that he's better on basic bike mechanics than me."

"Yeah, right, Dustin," Blake said pushing Dustin on the shoulder.

"I would appreciate it," Kelli said, "I've got about five bikes to prep before they go out the door and that's not even with what I already had on the maintenance schedule."

"That way you can work on the boards," Blake said.

"Yeah," Shane said, "We sold a whole bunch today, almost half of them wanted set up. If you want, I can come late in the evening after my other job, maybe on Monday and Tuesday to help."

"That is too much, guys," Kelli said, "None of you work for me anymore, you know."

"Nah," Dustin said, "Without you, we wouldn't have been able to keep Tori's van full of gas and we'd have to walk everywhere. You don't know how much you helped us."

"Us, too," Hunter piped up, "Blake and I would never be where we are now without you."

"Take the help, Kelli," Tommy said with a smile proud of the people that the former rangers had become. He looked around the store with an apprehensive eye, "if you want to be able to run this place, after how busy it was today, for the next little while, you'll need it."

"Not to mention the beach party," Tori said with a smile, "Come on, even the Reefside guys are staying to party with us tomorrow. After this past week, you need a break."

Kelli looked around with a smile, "Thanks, guys, I couldn't have done it without you."

A knock on the door startled the group and they looked with eager anticipation at the door. "Woo hoo!" Connor yelled, "Pizza!"

Kira and Haley cringed as the poor pizza delivery man got mobbed by a group of hungry young men. Kelli had to push the guys out of the way of the door to just pay the man who looked a little shocked. Marah, Kapri and Tori just giggled watching the guys set up the pizzas plates, napkins and drinks on the counter before almost falling upon the food as if they hadn't eaten for weeks. "Hmm," Haley said with a smirk, "I'm guessing the guys are hungry."

Kira just shook her head, "They are always hungry. One would think, however, that over the years they would become more civilized."

"Aww," Tori said with a shake of her head, "What fun would the guys be if they were civil?"

Tommy just shot the girls a rude look for the sake of his gender before moving to pick up some food for him. Luckily, Kelli had anticipated his penchant for healthy food and had also ordered a big salad. He was amused to see Trent had prepared two plates and was bringing one to Kira as he went to sit by her. This procured a loud "awww" from Marah and Kapri which caused the guys to look over and Trent and Kira to blush.

"Whipped," Hunter murmured, before he yelped in surprise as a hand whapped him on the back of the head. He turned rubbing the spot where he had been hit to see Tori standing there with a frown on her face.

"Be nice, he likes her."

Ethan rolled his eyes, "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt."

"Yeah," Connor piped up, "They did the whole flirt thing, then they had a go at it, then flames, big old flames."

"Ohhh," Marah said with a happy grin looking over at the couple now sitting on one of the sofas talking quietly, "maybe I should work on getting them together again."

"Yeah," Kapri said sarcastically, "maybe you'll have better luck with them than with you have had with Tori and Blake, or Hunter, or whoever you are trying to set her up with."

"Tori doesn't mind," Marah said looking eagerly at Tori.

Tori looked at the guys for help, but all she got was wide grins, "You know, Marah, I think I can manage to find someone to date all on my own."

"It's not you I'm trying to help," Marah said in a matter of fact voice, "Clearly it's Blake and Hunter that have problems, not you. At least you go on dates. Blake has been around all those factory riders and all his fans and I know he has to have some groupies and he's never hooked up with anyone for longer than a few months. All the articles talked about riders and their girlfriends, but not our Blake. His just talked about riding and his work out regimes. Boooring.

"And Hunter? Leeann almost has to kick him out of the dojo to get him to do anything other than work. And there are lots of girls that would want a piece of him. Hey, did you ever think about dating Leann?"

Hunter choked on soda he was trying to drink and turned bright red. Blake slapped his brother on the back with a laugh and said, "Nah, Marah, Hunter dating Leann would be like Shane dating Tori. Yeah, sure Hunter had a crush on her when he was younger, but she whipped his butt too many times to think of her as anything more as a sister."

"Hey," Shane protested, shuddering at the thought of dating Tori. She was more a sister to him. That would be too weird.

"Nah, Dude," Dustin said with a laugh, "You totally had a crush on Tori, and yeah, she whips your butt all the time."

"Not the point, Dustin," Shane said with a glare.

"Look," Tori broke in suddenly, "Marah, let's leave everyone's love life to themselves. I'm sure we can handle it. I understand that the boys are dating challenged," Tori ignored the rounds of protests from the guys, "but they have to learn to handle their mistakes on their own, or how else will they learn."

"Yeah, Marah, and it's not like you have had too much success in the dating department," Hunter spoke up taking another piece of pizza.

"Humph, shows what you know," said Marah with a smug smile, "I have a date for tomorrow's beach party. It's o.k. if he comes, right, Tori?"

"Sure, Cam and I got way more food than what I planned for. A few extra people won't matter much at all," Tori said as she started on a piece of pizza. Suddenly she frowned, "What's the matter now, guys?"

The ninja rangers were looking at Marah, then at each other, then at Marah again with significant looks and frowns on their faces. "I didn't know you were dating anyone," Hunter said, "Why didn't you tell us?"

Marah tilted her head to the side and retorted, "I don't have to tell you anything, you are not my father," suddenly she giggled, "and see Kapri, I can keep a secret."

"You didn't know anything about this?" Blake asked Hunter, who shrugged.

"You've been out with this guy more than once?" Shane asked.

"Do we know him?" came from Dustin.

"Really, Marah, Hunter may not be your father but Dad and I feel responsible for you," Cam started.

"ENOUGH!" Kapri said over the babbling boys, "Leave her alone. She is a grown woman. Plus we were evil space ninjas, we can take care of ourselves."

"Not to mention," Tori said with a glare, "Let's not have another confrontation like we had today?" She sent a significant glance towards Hunter who ducked his head and turned a bit red, "Ah, ah, ah," Tori held up a hand, "no buts. We will all meet Marah's friend tomorrow. You guys will leave her alone tonight and you will be polite and civil tomorrow, no threats, no interrogation, no posturing, no signs of aggression, nothing. Do you understand me?"

"Woah," Connor said to Ethan, "that was just like Kira, except without the whole goth look"

"Tell me about it," was the murmured reply.

Tommy, Haley and Kelli watched the conversation with growing amusement. "I take it your guys are just as protective of your girls as Connor and Ethan and Trent are of Kira," Haley said with a wide grin.

Kelli smiled, "Before Marah and Kapri started hanging out with them, I used to feel so bad for Tori, especially before Blake and Hunter came along. Dustin and Shane just looked at her like she was one of the guys. It was pretty rough. At least Blake showed her some appreciation, and then when he left, well, it was rough there, for awhile. Tori used to be insecure about her looks and whether she was attractive to guys, but Blake got her past that. I'm glad he's back. Maybe he's gained some maturity as well and intends to go after what he wants instead of just dancing around the issue. What about your lovebirds in the corner?"

Kira and Trent had finished eating and as the store was pretty much back to normal, she had pulled out her guitar and was playing some chord progressions as Trent sketched silently next to her. "They had a go at it and time and distance made it really tough on them. They just drifted apart emotionally," Haley said. "Kira told me they decided they would be better off just being friends."

"Really?" Tommy asked. He hadn't heard any of this. All he knew was that Trent and Kira were dating, then they weren't.

Haley rolled her eyes at Kelli before the two women chuckled at Tommy's confusion. "Don't worry about it Tommy, if anything major changes, I'll let you know."

"Good, it's good to know these things," he watched the teens continue to eat and tease and bicker with each other, "at least I think." All he knew was that tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.


	6. Chapter 6

The day dawned bright and early and the weather promised to cooperate. At nine a.m. sharp, Tori, whose parents owned the rental beach house where the Reefside guests were staying, knocked on the door with Cam in tow. Kira answered the door in her pajamas with a wide yawn.

"Morning, sleepy head!" Tori said brightly as she carried two bags full of food into the kitchen. Cam followed with two more bags and as soon as he dropped them, he went straight out the front door again.

"Do you need any help?" Kira asked as she watched Tori start a pot of coffee.

"Nope, not unless you want to," Tori replied pulling containers out of the bags and putting various things in the refrigerator, "You are more than welcome to take a shower first. No one is showing up until eleven and that's just the guys to help finish setting up."

Cam returned to the kitchen, arms full of bags and Tommy followed his arms also full. "Good Morning, Dr. O!" Tori said with a chirp.

"Morning person, isn't she?"

"Says the person who was out running on the beach," Cam replied with a smirk.

"Oh, help, could you guys take the coolers of ice and soda out on the deck and the stuff that's not food?" Tori asked.

"Sure, Tor, we got it," Cam said looking at Tommy and they returned to the van.

"Coffee," Trent wandered into the kitchen like a zombie and sat himself at the breakfast bar and dropping his head on the counter. Tori and Kira giggled. Tori pulled some mugs off of a shelf and Kira moved to prepare a cup for Trent and one for her.

"Do you want any?" Kira asked Tori, who was once again rooting in the cupboards for some kitchen appliance.

"No thanks, but there's stuff for breakfast, cereal and some muffins and fruit in one of the bags."

"You didn't have to do that," Tommy said returning to the kitchen and pouring a cup of coffee for himself and Cam as Kira rooted through the bags for food, knowing that when Connor and Ethan arrived, having food provided would be much easier than letting them root though the bags of food on their own. Those two would find a bag of chips or something and decide that would be an adequate breakfast for them.

"After all the help with the signing, yesterday, it's no problem."

"Well, you also gave us a place to stay overnight," Tommy protested.

"No big. The rental company has a number of properties and it's still early for the vacation season. It wasn't too hard to move the reservation. Mom, Dad and I always have priority to allow friends to stay here if the company is not booked solid," Tori said easily.

"But this place must cost a fortune to rent," Trent said, finally awake enough to follow the conversation after his first cup of coffee. Kira had given him a refill and he was chomping on a muffin. Although he had his career as a comic book artist, living with his father had rubbed off on him quite a bit. Anton Mercer may accept that his son was successful in what he did, but that didn't mean he was going to let his son not be educated in the fine art of money management. In fact, he had taken the entire Dino Thunder group, including Tommy and Haley, in hand regarding financial matters and took an active role in advising them financially.

"It's a good bit of income for my parents and me, they used it help pay for my college classes, but I have so few expenses now and the Academy pays me a salary for teaching there," Tori replied, "None of us are really hurting for money."

"You wouldn't think that from how the guys come around bumming meals the few days before pay day," Cam complained.

Tori just laughed, "That's because while they have control of their checking accounts for day to day living stuff, I control their savings accounts and they can't access those without my signature."

"I still don't know how you managed that," Cam said with a smile shaking his head, "It's amazing the things Tori can talk the guys into."

"Kira does the same thing," Trent replied with a smile, "only it's more with threats and violence than with talking."

"I have never threatened you," Kira replied hotly.

"That's only because I'm easy going and give in. I know even if you are being bossy, it's in our best interest," Trent blissfully ignored Kira's huff of "I'm not bossy," and continued, "You only threaten when Ethan wants to buy that next bit of computer hardware or to get Connor to finish college because another soccer team has asked him to go pro."

"It's like she's another mom," Connor complained blearily heading straight for the coffee pot.

"A violent, scary mom," Ethan followed Connor in, but headed for the orange juice on the table.

"A violent, scary mom who wouldn't have to be violent and scary except you guys never do what your own moms tell you to do," Kira retorted.

"Ah," Connor said with a sigh and ignoring Kira's glare, he gave her a one-armed hug, "it's a good thing we love her."

"And that she loves us," Ethan quipped.

"Are they going at it already?" Haley wandered out fully dressed and with a smile on her face, "What do you need help with?"

"Nothing right now," Tori said, "I just brought breakfast and the food. We have to pick up some chairs and tables at ten thirty. Everything's pretty much ready to go. They guys will be over at eleven to set up and start cooking. People will start showing up at noon."

"Well, I'm off to take a shower. You four have time for a run on the beach," Tommy said.

Everyone but Connor groaned. "I can't believe it's been almost four years but every time he sees us, he feels like he has to put us back into training," Ethan complained.

"Yeah, well, most of us wouldn't complain if they would get out of their computer cubicle on a regular basis and keep in shape," Connor said going to change into work out clothes.

"I keep in shape," Kira said scrambling after him down the hall. Trent and Ethan looked at each other and reluctantly followed knowing that even though Connor was going to run them all into the ground, Kira was going to do everything to keep up with him and someone had to try and keep her from killing herself or Connor. Not to mention, if they didn't go, Connor would rub it in and Kira would call them wimps.

"They never change," Tommy muttered.

Cam looked at him with amusement. "No, they don't," he agreed.

It was noon and the beach house was humming. Grandma and Omino and Watanabe Sensei sat under the shade of the patio and watched their students and friends while speaking of school matters. Cam was manning the large barbeque which had a variety of meats and vegetables cooking. Tori, Haley and Kira had spread out large piles of side dishes, snacks and desserts on a table in the shade where people were picking up food and milling about between there, the barbeque and the tubs of cold drinks. Dustin and Blake were in charge of music, Ethan, Connor and Eric had started up a game of ultimate Frisbee and Marah and Kapri had set up a volley ball net.

"This is the life!" Shane exclaimed as he caught Tori around the waist and spun her during one of her frequent runs to the kitchen. He gave her a peck on the cheek and let her go with a smile. It felt good to just have a day where he wasn't in charge. He loved being the head teacher at the Wind Academy, but he soon found, like Hunter, that with the title came more than just teaching. He knew he was blessed to have his friends and mentor working so hard along side him to make the ninja academy as successful as it was. Knowing Hunter was less staffed than the wind academy, since Blake had left, prompted Shane to propose the joint teaching and student program with the Thunder Academy. It took almost two years to get the system up and running, but it was paying off as the instructors noticed the high quality of students coming out of both schools.

"Hey, bro!" Shane greeted Hunter as Hunter moved to take a shift at the barbeque leaving Cam to eat and mingle, "Need any help?"

"Nah, but I could use a soda. Woah, look at that."

Shane turned to see Cam walk up to Leann Omino and give her a soft kiss. He took her hand and she let him lead her down the patio steps to the beach. Shane's eyes grew wide, "Did you know about that? I didn't know about that."

"Dude, I gotta find Blake, Cam is so going to get it," Hunter tossed the spatula over to Shane and practically streaked into the house.

Shane hurriedly found a student to hand over the spatula to before moving across the patio to follow the couple. He had to warn Cam and Leann that there were soon going to be two thunder ninjas hot on their tail. Then, Shane grinned, he would have to let Dustin and Tori know.

"It seems like Cam and Leann are ready to let the others know about their relationship," Kanoi Watanabe said in observation.

Omino Sensei just grunted, although he liked Cam Watanabe, and his sons were close friends with the young man and his father, it was still difficult watching the girl you had raised as your own suddenly fall head over heels in love. Not to mention, having no real close girlfriends, she brought all her questions and insecurities to her Sensei as she always had. "I do not think they were deliberately hiding, and I don't think that was a conscious declaration."

"They've grown comfortable with each other. Although they are always professional during school hours, they have relaxed after everyone has gone home. They are not at the school, so they behave as they do out of school," Grandma said with a smile as her fingers flew over her knitting.

"It is a good relationship. She reminds me of Miko, strong and grounded. She will not let Cam hide with his computers."

"Your son, with his computers, has made a big difference at the Thunder Academy. I appreciate his assistance in helping us computerize all the systems. We all spend much less time on paperwork than we did before," Omino Sensei said, "Although, I need Leann to help me locate things all the time."

"We are a different generation. I still can do little more than e-mail and type," Watanabe Sensei said in commiseration.

"You two are hopeless," Grandma said with a fond smile, "I hope you loosen up when the grandchildren come."

"Tori, relax, the party is going great!" Blake said. He had followed the slightly frazzled blond into the kitchen and watched her check the refrigerator and the pantry twice.

"I don't think I got enough chicken or veggie burgers," Tori said with a frown, mentally calculating in her head how much of each she had left in the refrigerator.

"Then they can have some of the other stuff laid out or hamburgers or hotdogs, or if totally desperate, we can make a quick store run," Blake said taking her hand and leading her towards the open patio doors, "Come on, Tor, Marah and Kapri said they would help take care of things for awhile, let's go for a walk on the beach, we haven't done that in forever."

Backing up as he was, he was totally taken by surprise when Hunter barreled into him and both of them crashed into Tori. "Blake, woah, Tori, sorry," Hunter said straightening, "but emergency."

"Emergency!" Tori's eyes got wide, "what happened?"

"No, nothing, well, not nothing," Hunter said with a wild look in his eyes, "Come on, we have to go find them."

"Someone's missing?" Tori asked.

"No," Hunter looked at Blake, "Dude, Cam and Leann."

"Cam and Leann are missing?" Tori said confused, she had just left Cam at the grill. Now she looked over and saw a poor student trying to control a fire that had flared up at the grill. "Hunter, the grill's on fire!"

"What?"

Hunter turned to find that Shane had abandoned the grill to a young wind student who clearly had no idea how to work a grill. The three of them tumbled towards the hapless student who looked like he was about to catch himself on fire. Hunter quickly grabbed the spatula and started rearranging the grill as Blake grabbed some thongs and moved the cooked meat and vegetables onto trays. The wind student was apologizing and looked like he was about to burst into tears while Tori tried to calm him.

"Where is Cam? What the heck happened here? He was supposed to take care of the grill." Tori said frustrated.

Hunter looked ashamed, "He left the grill with me," when Tori turned a glare to him, he took a step back, "I left it with Shane!"

Tori rolled her eyes. "Well, now I'm leaving the grill with you."

"But I can't, Tori, Cam and Leann."

"What about Cam and Leann?" Blake asked amused that his brother was so worked up about something but seemingly unable to express to anyone else what had gotten him all worked up.

"They were _kissing_," Hunter hissed urgently to Blake, "They went off somewhere, _holding hands_!"

Tori choked on a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough. Unsuccessfully, she noted as two pairs of eyes zeroed in on her face. "Do you know something about this?" Hunter growled.

Not at all intimidated, Tori looked at a fuming Hunter with a smile, "Hunter, open your eyes, even Dustin knew about this."

"Shane didn't!" Hunter said.

"Really? Dustin knew something before Shane did, wow, that's a first," Tori said in amazement.

"Not the point here," Blake broke in, "What's this about Cam and Leann?"

"Hunter, you can't really believe all this time Cam has been spending at your school was to 'set up the computers.' He and Leann have been dating for almost six months now," Tori looked into Hunter's amazed face and said flatly, "You really can't have been that oblivious."

"I've been busy, you know, that's maybe why Shane didn't notice either, as head teachers, we were just busier than you guys," Hunter tried.

Tori stifled a laugh, but Blake laughed out loud, "No, bro, you pretty much are that oblivious. It took a week of me talking about Tori nearly non-stop before you even realized I was so into her."

"Yeah, but that was like six years ago, I was some young, dumb, high-schooler," Hunter argued.

"And how long did it take you to figure out that Tally had a huge crush on you?" Tori asked, "Any time you were at the wind academy, Tal followed him around love struck."

"What happened with that?" Blake asked amused.

"She finally figured out he was too much work and set her sights on Shane."

"What? Shane!"

"What?" Shane asked as he and Dustin walked up to the group at the barbeque, huge grins on their faces.

"Dude," Dustin said looking at the grill and some of the charred meat and vegetables, "What happened here?"

"Someone who was supposed to watch the grill took off and a wind student almost burned down the place," Hunter said with a growl to Shane.

"Hey, I was off on a mission of mercy," Shane replied with a grin, "Someone had to warn Cam and Leann and Hunter was on the war path."

"You are so going to get it," Hunter said lunging at Shane, who just back pedaled and laughed as Blake and Dustin caught Hunter between them.

"You didn't know about Cam and Leann?" Dustin asked, "Dude, even I knew about Cam and Leann. There's a big old picture of them on her computer."

"Arggh!" Hunter groaned running his hands through his hair.

Blake suddenly made a decision, he was going with his original plan, "Dustin, take the grill. Don't set anyone on fire. Shane, go get Marah and Kapri to help take care of the guests. Hunter, chill, go play Frisbee or volleyball or go hang with the Senseis and leave Cam and Leann alone, we can give them a bad time later. Tori, you and I are going for that walk."

Dustin, Shane and Hunter stood like three wooden Indians as Blake took Tori by the hand and with a gentle smile and a few word, coaxed her down to the beach. "Dude," Dustin said scratching his head, "Did Blake just give a whole bunch of orders?"

Shane smiled and nudged Hunter, "Seems like all that time away finally got Blake to take charge instead of always relying on Hunter."

Hunter just smiled.

"Tori, you know how to throw a party," Blake said as they passed the ultimate Frisbee players and walked towards the water. As they reached the water, they turned left and walked along the expanse of sand where the furthest lap of the wave would reach. Occasionally their feet would be washed with water before the ocean and sand would pull the water away again. It felt like old times.

"It was a good time. I thought it would just be a welcome home for a vacation thing, but it more turned into a retirement party."

"Yeah, too bad Roger plans with his family. I'm glad some of the other riders were able to come," Blake said, watching Tori carefully. Tori pulled a hand out of the pocket of her shorts to smooth her hair back behind her ear and before she could shrug her hand back into her pocket, Blake took it entwining her fingers with his.

Tori looked at Blake and then quickly looked away biting her lower lip, but she left her hand in his as they continued to walk. "So, what are your plans?" Tori asked curiously.

"Regarding you?" Blake said with a cocky smile, "I can think of a whole lot of things I want to do with you."

Tori stiffened and pulled away with her hand. Blake held on and stopped walking. Tori pulled at her hand again and said firmly, "No." Blake let go and after an almost apologetic look at Blake, Tori stuffed both hands in her pockets and turned to continue walking. Confused, Blake caught up with her and they walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Tell me what to do, Tor, tell what you need, who you want me to be," Blake began.

Tori stopped and turned to him, "That's the thing, Blake. I don't know what to do. It seemed like maybe one of these days we could figure it out, but we never did. I have friends, family, a job I love, I don't need anything. And as for you, I don't want you to change who you are." She reached out and lightly touched Blake on the cheek, "When we were out saving the world, we were still in high school and everything in our lives was so compartmentalized. You were the first guy who saw me as a girl-girl instead of a guy-girl and you can't know how much you did for my self-confidence, then. I knew you had to go. You had to grow up and I had to grow up, and we've always been friends, but we rarely saw each other, we never spent time just you and me, to talk, to be together.

"It's been five years, Blake and the person you were and the person that I was are long gone. There has never been and us, and I don't want to just slip in to pretending that something was between us even while you were gone. This is not some continuation of a six year flirtation that suddenly means something."

Before Tori could drop her hand, Blake took it in one of his. "Do you know that I had this conversation in my head a couple of hundred times?" Blake said, "I guess you know that at some point you grew up when the girl doesn't automatically fall into your arms anymore. Sometimes, you even slapped me and walked off and I languished in despair." He flashed a smile at her before continuing. "We didn't get it right five years ago, but that hasn't stopped me from thinking about it, thinking about you. So this time, I'm going to do it right. Tori, would you like to go out with me next weekend?"

Tori shook her head, "Friday is movie night at Cam's place."

"Saturday?" Blake said. "We can catch a movie, dinner?"

"I don't know, Blake," Tori said suddenly wary.

"It'll be o.k., Tor, I'm not going to push you into anything. Friends, right? We can start there."

Tori looked at their clasped hands, then back up into Blake's face. "Saturday," she agreed and although she turned and was silent as they continued their walk down the beach, she let Blake hold her hand in his.

Hand in hand they walked along the sand with Leann's skirt swirling around her calves as she danced in and out of the waves at the edge of the ocean. Cam just smiled, letting her lead him around as she laughed and spun. Occasionally, he would pull her close and twirl her around or spin her in the middle of her dance, their laughter echoing along the shore. "And what are you so happy about, Miss Omino?" Cam said as he twirled her around twice before continuing their stroll.

"You do realize that you just kissed me in front of everyone, including the former rangers and our fathers, and before I could even say hello, you dragged me off for a stroll down the beach," Leann said.

"We weren't hiding from anyone," Cam said, "Our fathers know we are seeing each other. Even Dustin knows. If Dustin knows, everyone else must have already figured it out."

Leann laughed, a bright, happy sound that never failed to make Cam smile. "None of you give Dustin enough credit. He found out because he wanted some help with the thunder student records and just happened to see that picture of us on my wallpaper. I don't think Shane, Hunter or Blake knew."

"Oh, and that is supposed to bother me, why?" Cam asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because as nice as Shane was to tell us about Hunter, he is still going to rib you mercilessly and it appears that Hunter is on some war path and will drag Blake along with him," Leann said leaning up to kiss Cam on the cheek.

"And you think I can't handle a couple of young thunder ninjas?"

"Well, you can certainly handle this one," Leann said looking up at him with a sultry look in her eyes.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" Cam asked with a soft smile for the woman walking beside him.

"I have a pretty good idea," she replied sassily before a softness graced her face and her voice, "but somehow I think you see me as even more beautiful than that and it humbles me."

Cam's eyebrow shot upward, "Humble?" he smirked, "I didn't even know that thunder ninjas knew the word humble."

Cam laughed at Leann's look of outrage and before she could hit him, he slipped out of her reach and half danced, half ran down the beach. "Cameron!" Leann yelled in mock outrage, "When I catch you!" And laughing, the two of them ran down the beach.

"Oh, there he is," Marah said popping up from where they guys had gathered, and she made her way happily to meet one of the riders from Factory Blue that was walking out of the beach house. They met and the taller rider took Marah's hands and kissed her cheek. She smiled and blushed and giggled at something he said before he led him off to meet the Senseis sitting with Grandma Bradley.

Kapri looked at the guys staring with their mouths hanging open and snorted, "You can all close your mouths, now."

"Is that John Riley?" Hunter asked staring at the man who was shaking Watanabe Sensei's hand.

"Yeah, man, it's totally him," Dustin replied in a quiet shocked voice.

"Dude, where's Blake? We gotta tell him," Shane said wide eyed.

"And what is that going to do?" Kapri asked sarcastically.

All eyes swung to her. "Blake's got to know this guy, you know, so we could find out what kind of guy he really is," Shane said.

Dustin frowned, "The mags all make him out to be some player. Lots of ex-girlfriends talking trash about him, girl in every town. He's supposed to party hard, ride hard, spend tons of money and barely stay this side of legal."

Hunter stood up intent on getting Marah away from the man who she was now leading to the food tables when Kapri grabbed his arm to tug him back into his chair. "All of that stuff is exaggerated. You guys make fun of those articles all the time saying they can't really be true. You can't go beating on a guy for that. You shouldn't even go beating on him at all."

"If he does one thing wrong, if he looks at Marah wrong, or says something or does something," Hunter muttered. Shane and Dustin nodded their heads in agreement. All three of them returned to glaring at the couple.

"And you wonder why we have to sneak out to go on dates," Kapri shook her head, "He's a totally nice guy. He and Marah met a couple of years ago at the Factory Blue signing and they e-mail and call each other and when he's in town, they go out."

"She never told me this!" Hunter said affronted.

"Because she's smart," Kapri said before shaking her head. She couldn't believe she just called her ditzy sister smart. "She knew you would fly off the handle like this. You are ready to fly off the handle about Leann and Cam and you know and like Cam. And need I have to remind you about how long it took for Shane and Dustin to get over wanting to trounce on Blake after he left. The only reason they stopped is because Tori was spitting nails."

"And she hits hard," Dustin said rubbing his arm with sympathetic phantom pains.

"Yeah," Shane said confidently, "Marah doesn't hit hard as Tori."

"Not to mention she gets over things faster," Hunter said a gleam entering his eyes as he looked at the other guys for back up.

"Don't you even think about it. Look, she's coming over here. You guys will be nice, or you are so going to get it," Kapri hissed.

"Yeah," Hunter said standing up and narrowing his eyes at Kapri in an attempt at physical intimidation.

Kapri just snorted at him and poked him in the chest with her index finger. "Formerly evil space ninja, remember? You don't scare me. I'll sic Tori on all of you," she threatened hotly not at all bothered by Hunter's show of superior physical strength.

Hunter backed up and sat down while he boys grumbled amongst themselves and frowned. They all settled down a bit as Marah walked up to them with a huge smile on her face. "Hey, guys, this is John. Hunter is the blond. He's Blake's brother, that's Dustin and Shane and you know Kapri."

A round of barely polite hellos came from the ninjas as they eyed John carefully. "Maybe you guys might want to go eat in the shade over there," Kapri said tilting her head towards a table with an umbrella over it. "The guys still have to help me finish the barbeque and we promised Blake that we would keep the party running while he took Tori off for a walk."

"Tori?" John asked, "Blake's with Tori? The Tori?"

"What about Tori?" Dustin said a bit dangerously.

"Nah, it's just that he always talked about her, you know. I met her, a couple of times when we were here for the signings. I'm just surprised he's made a move already. Go Blake," John said with a smile looking at Marah, "Wait till I tell the other guys that Blake's making a play for the hot blonde."

John didn't notice the tension go up until he looked back to the guys and the smile on his face faltered, "What?" he asked.

The young men glared at him with almost evil intent. Kapri rolled her eyes and took Marah by one arm and John by the other and with a final glare at the ninjas, she steered the couple away from them and down to the table she indicated earlier. She turned at the end to say to the guys, "You had better take care of things like Blake asked you to do, or when Tori gets back, I don't want to be in your shoes."

"You wouldn't want to be in their shoes, anyway," Marah said with a happy shudder, "I try and stay away from their shoes at all cost. They smell bad." She shot them a happy grin and waved as Kapri dragged her away.

"One wrong look, one wrong word," Hunter muttered as he stood plastering a false grin on his face before following the trio. Shane and Dustin just looked at each other with a grin. Hunter could take care of things.

It was late and most of the partiers had gone home. Dustin had been successful in introducing one of his more advanced earth students to Hunter and Omino Sensei and they approved his choice of the assistant instructor. Blake and Tori had returned after their walk, hand in hand seemingly comfortable each other. The rest of the afternoon, however, had Tori avoiding being alone with Blake. Cam and Leann rejoined the party, also hand in hand, smiling, laughing and teasing each other and the other ninja students. The wind ninjas had never seen Cam so light and carefree. The Omino Sensei had taken Grandma home and Watanabe Sensei left soon after. The wind ninjas and dino rangers had helped clean up and at eight o'clock, they, along with Kelli and John were sitting around the fire-pit on the back porch. Kira and Trent sat close together, Kira strumming her guitar and humming quietly. Trent sat with his familiar sketch pad drawing intently in the low light. Ethan and Connor, with their perpetual youth were roasting marshmallows. More accurately, Ethan was roasting. Connor was just happily lighting them on fire and eating the charred ones.

"What a party," Shane said with a content smile as he sat back enjoying the evening, "you rock, Tori." The others muttered their agreement with Shane's statement.

"Couldn't have done it without you," Tori replied, "especially Cam." She smiled at Cam who was sitting with an arm around Leann.

"You were right, guys," Kelli said leaning back in her chair with a sigh, "I really did need to take a day off."

"Your event, yesterday, is a favorite of ours," John said with a smile at Kelli, "Not only is it Blake's hometown, which always draws a crowd, but we get a concert and I get to see one of my favorite girls." He slipped an arm around Marah and gave her a half hug. Marah just smiled and leaned into his shoulder, blissfully ignoring the glares the guys were giving the couple.

"This is a great place," Haley said, "Thanks again, Tori, for letting us stay here."

"Anytime, just give me a call. If the management company has availability, it's no problem setting some time up. Summer's are really crowded, but at the beginning and ending of the summer season, just let me know and I'll let you know if I can reserve it for you."

"Dude," Ethan said with a manic smile of glee, "PARTY!"

"Not without proper adult supervision," Tommy broke in.

"We're adults," Connor argued, lighting another marshmallow on fire.

Trent chuckled, "Don't get Dr. O and Haley started, Connor."

"Well," Kelli said with a smile and standing, "It's late and I've got a bed to get home to. Thanks again, Tori." She walked around dispensing hugs and goodbyes.

"We'd all better head home," Hunter said throwing scathing glances at Marah and Leann who were snuggled up next to John and Cam.

"Let Dad know I'm staying at Cam's tonight," Leann said getting up with a stretch before pulling Cam to his feet.

"No, you are not," Hunter replied darkly, "now say goodbye and let's go home."

"Lee," Cam said a little amused by the power play going on, "go home. I'll call you tomorrow."

Leann turned to give Cam a scathing look, "I don't have to listen to him, and I don't have to listen to you. I am a grown woman and I can do what I want! What I want is to go home with you, so I don't know why you, Mr. Watanabe, are arguing with me."

Cam just smiled at her, "Not the right time and not the right battle. Plus, you like Tori too much to get into a fight now and ruin her night."

Leann scowled at Cam then at Hunter before saying, "Fine, but you and I are going to have a talk about making decisions for me. And you," she said turning to Hunter, "are not my father."

"I just don't want Omino Sensei sending Blake and me out in the middle of the night to find you when he finds out you aren't at home," Hunter retorted crossing his arms across his chest.

"Are they always like this?" John asked Marah.

"Uh-huh," the whole group confirmed. Even Cam nodded in amused agreement.

Cam slipped an arm around Leann and started walking her to the front of the house away from the others who were gathering up the last of the supplies on the deck and putting out the pit fire. When they had slipped around the edge of the house where the others couldn't see them, Cam pulled Leann into his arms. "Hey, look at me."

Leann's eyes met his and he realized that she was not really angry, just a bit annoyed and he knew it was as much at Hunter as at him. "I would love to have you come over tonight, but it's just not the time. Hunter is crazy possessive and protective, look how he always was with Blake. You and I came as a shock to him, today."

"It wouldn't have been if he just opened his eyes," Leann grumbled.

Cam slipped his hands to her face. "He's probably going to bluster at you, then he's going to have a go at me, then we'll be fine. We have lots of time."

"How come you are so level headed?" Leann asked leaning up to kiss Cam softly.

"Because if I'm not, you hot-headed thunder ninjas would have ruined Tori's party."

"Cam," Leann said, exasperated, but he just smiled and kissed her back.

They broke apart when they heard someone clearing their throat and they both looked to find Blake standing there with an embarrassed smile on his face. "We'd better get going, Leeann. Cam, Hunter's going to try and track you down tomorrow. If you really want to see some fireworks, make yourself scarce for a day or two. Should provide a ton of amusement."

"I can't believe you just suggested that!" a sharp female voice came from behind him and Cam and Leann stifled laughter at the suddenly terrified look that came over Blake's face before he turned to find Tori standing behind him with her hands on her hips and shaking her head.

"Ah, come on, Tor, you've got to admit it's always fun to wind Hunter up."

Tori just shook her head and said to Leann and Cam, "I'm ready to head out, you need a ride?"

Cam shook his head, "Leann will drop me off at my place. Everyone ready to go?"

"Yes, Blake's taking Hunter and the girls back to the academy. I'm dropping off John at the Blue Bay Inn, then taking Shane and Dustin to their place. We're ready to go."

With one last round of goodbyes, the wind and thunder ninjas took their leave of the Dino Thunder rangers who were going to head back to Reefside the next day. As Tori dropped off John, then Shane and Dustin, she grinned to herself. It had been a great day.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclamer: Power Rangers Ninja Storm, the characters and their world are not mine.

Monday morning dawned bright and early and Hunter woke in a foul mood. "Yo, bro, we're heading off to the wind school." Blake, Kapri and Marah stood in the doorway of his room. "You're going to be late for morning class."

Hunter just growled and pulled the covers up over his head. He knew they were right, but wasn't sure how he was going to deal with his new knowledge of Cam and Leann. First things first, though, he did owe Leann an apology. He got up and got ready for his day. With Blake going over the wind school today, he was expecting Dustin and the new earth instructor and although Leann was there to lead classes, since he was at the academy, he had better be out there. It might be nice to be just one of the students for once he thought pulling on his instructor uniform and stretching out the kinks in his neck.

There was a startled hush when he walked into the dining room. He frowned knowing that his students had gotten used to his being gone on Monday mornings. Although he trusted Leann completely with the school and the students, complacency was not a habit he wanted to encourage. Alien attacks rarely came with warning.

"Morning, Hunter," Leann said coolly as he moved to sit beside her and her father at the head table after greeting his grandmother with a kiss on the cheek.

"Sensei, Leann, good morning. Leann, I owe you an apology," Hunter said wanting to get it over with, knowing how uncomfortable Leann could make his life if she chose, "You are absolutely right, you are an adult and can make your own decisions. I love you and I worry about you. You are family to Blake and me, and you are the sister that I feel like I have to protect." Hunter had kept his head down through his apology. Although all the things he said were true, and he really meant them, he was not going to let Leann get away unscathed.

Leann, knowing her "brother" like she did waited for the bombshell. "I should have let you go to spend the night at Cam's yesterday."

Leann put her elbows on the table and dropped her face into her hands. She could just imagine Hunter's gloating expression, although she knew he wasn't wearing one now. The only blessing was that Blake had already left this morning, or he would have fallen off his chair laughing. Not that Hunter was going to keep this moment to himself.

"Leann?!" her father's shocked voice came from her right. Grandma Bradley was coughing, but Leann was sure it was because she was trying not to laugh. Leann just groaned as she imagined ways that she was going to seriously HURT Hunter at first opportunity.

"Dad, please, you've known about Cam since we started dating almost six months ago," Leann said with a look of resignation. "I am an adult and I have been on my own before. Please, Dad."

"I am just saying that a ninja has certain standards to uphold," Omino Sensei replied stiffly.

Grandma took this opportunity to break in, "What he means, dear, is that he loves you, he worries about you and be discreet. That Cam is a sweet boy. Your father completely approves of him. He just feels like he has to bluster," she turned her gaze to Hunter, "And you should be ashamed of yourself, young man, that was completely uncalled for. No cookies for a week."

Leann hid a smile as Hunter looked up in amazement. Grandma Bradley was not above using their ninja honor against them. Hunter was now honor bound to stay away from any of her baking for a week. "Yes, Grandma," he nodded thinking now that he should have dropped the bombshell when only Omino Sensei and Leann were present. He still had a great story to tell the guys, though. However, his grin turned into a grimace of pain as Leann kicked him under the table in retaliation.

After breakfast, Hunter went out to the training field where he saw that Dustin and his student along with Shane had streaked in. Hunter went over to them and when the hand shaking and back slapping ritual was complete, Hunter and Shane went to sit at the pagoda while Leann ran the ninjas through their training regime.

"So, what brings you over here this morning?" Hunter asked Shane as he observed Dustin and his student conform themselves to the Thunder style form. Dustin and Tori were very avid about learning the thunder techniques to improve their teaching. Shane was less so, but he was very respectful to maintain the integrity of the thunder style as he taught the air element classes. Dustin's student seemed adaptable and willing to learn. As Dustin and Leann directed him through some of the techniques and Hunter watched impressed.

"Well, since Blake was over there this morning, I figured I'd stop by and see how the teaching rotation is being changed."

Hunter grinned, "Blake got wet. He's doing my teaching there for six months."

Shane snickered, "Dude, that is so unfair."

Hunter shrugged still intent on the students below. "I just figured we'd adapt the schedule so that Tori and Blake are always at the same school."

Shane looked over at his friend. Over the years, the two had become particularly close as they shared the trials and triumphs of running the wind and thunder academies. Hunter's emotions were closed off and Shane thought he knew why. "So that's your decision?"

Hunter shrugged. "Five years is a long time. If Tori felt something different for me, I think I might have done something. Now Blake is back. You've seen him watching her, it's like she's his whole world."

"You o.k. with that?"

"I have to be. It's like you guys said, at one time or another, all of us have had a thing for Tori, mine just happened to be a couple of years ago. Come on, be honest with me, do you think she ever got over Blake?" Hunter asked.

Shane shrugged confused trying to think about Tori and her actions over the past five years that would have indicated a change in feelings. "I don't know. She was a wreck when he left, and then after we saw him again. Dude, as if we could forget?"

Hunter shook his head, "I guess I just feel so bad, like we should have done something. We just kept looking at her like she was a guy-girl." Shane snickered at the term, then grew serious as Hunter continued, "By the time I was looking at her as something else, I think it was too late. Maybe she has just been waiting for Blake."

"He knows you asked her out."

"Yeah," Hunter said with a grin, "I'm waiting for him to get up the guts to talk to me about it. It's almost fun watching him squirm."

"That's why you plastered yourself to them this weekend," Shane said shaking his head, "You know, one of these days, you are going to wind up the wrong person."

"Hey, Tori's the one who kissed me! And you should have seen Leann this morning," Hunter said with an evil grin.

Shane rolled his eyes, "This I got to hear," he said and Hunter regaled him of the tale of breakfast, "Dude," Shane said afterwards with a chuckle, "I don't know who's going to kick your butt first, Leann or Cam once Leann tells him."

"Leann's the one I worry about. Cam can handle the ribbing. Leann hits harder."

Shane sat back remembering years ago when Dustin had said something similar to him about Tori. "So, how do we get Blake and Tori together?"

Hunter sat back with a tight grin on his face, "I think just keeping them in the same proximity as much as possible is going to work. Blake's much more confident than he ever was before and I really think he knows what he wants this time. If she's still got a thing for him, she'll bite."

"And if she doesn't?"

"You don't mack on your bro's girl," Hunter replied, "She'll bite," a grin crossed Hunter's face, "Dude, no one can resist the Bradley charm."

Shane snorted, "Ah, yes, too bad girls won't let you get close enough to try it on them."

"Little you know, I got a date next weekend."

Shane's eyebrows winged up at this bit of news. "With who?"

"Kira's got a few gigs in Blue Bay over the next few weeks. A couple of clubs have booked her after seeing her on Saturday. I promised her dinner and a few workouts, maybe a few moonlit walks on the beach and possibly dancing. You never know."

Shane was a bit relieved to say the least. He remembered back to when he first met the thunder brothers and that first conversation he overheard. After Blake left, Hunter and Tori became fairly close as they used the other to fill the void that Blake had left. But after seeing Blake in Reefside that one time, Tori went through a bad patch. Hunter may have had a thing for Tori, but if Hunter was thinking about Kira Ford, he wouldn't be too worried about the crimson ninja.

"Hey, bro, just remember, huh?" Shane waited until Hunter looked at him, "I know you want Blake happy. Dude, I'd feel the same way about Tori or Dustin, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your happiness for them all the time."

"It's different if it's your brother."

"I know, I have a brother, and I can't even think about what Porter has done over the years just to remind me how much he supports me. But you have to not let that stop you from living your life. You think Blake's going to be happy years from now if he's got everything and you are miserable and alone because you gave him everything he needed and wanted. It's one thing being a big brother, man, but you don't have to be a martyr."

Hunter looked at Shane and saw the sincerity in his eyes. "I know, man," he said extending a fist in Shane's direction. Shane smiled and bumped Hunter's fist with his. "Now, about that teaching schedule . . ."

Hunter smiled looking back at the students. Dustin peeled of his group of earth ninjas and they took off for a sprint in the forest. Leann had the other students and was leading them through techniques. Hunter stood and indicated that Shane should follow him to his office. The two ninjas trimmed in red walked from the pagoda plotting the future of their brother and friend.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Power Rangers Ninja Storm, the characters and their world do not belong to me.

It was Thursday before Blake caught up with his Hunter. It seemed that whatever school Blake was at, Hunter was at the other. Even in the evenings, when Blake was back at the thunder academy, it seemed that Hunter would go to the wind school to discuss academy business. Blake knew Hunter. Hunter was deliberately avoiding him.

Blake had returned from the wind academy early and caught Hunter just as he was finishing the first year class. Blake stood watching his brother perform techniques that they had practiced hundreds of times and remembered back to those early days of training, when he and Hunter had just lost their parents and the training was how Omino Sensei had focused their minds and their bodies past their grief and started them on the track to where they were today.

"And if Bradley Sensei would break out of his day dreaming, we will show you how these techniques are applied in an actual combat situation."

Blake blinked and met Hunter's smirk with one of his own. "You got to take it easy on me, bro; I'm just getting back in shape." But he bowed and stepped up to the teaching platform where Hunter stood, bowed to his brother and took a fighting stance. They exchanged the basic kicks and punches, refraining from doing anything too advanced, in a comfortable rhythm born from years of training together. The kicks, punches, blocks and parries came fluidly as their students watched in amazement. Soon, Leann had brought her group of advanced students to watch and Shane had drifted over with his small group of air students. The power and joy of the simple exercise exuded from the combatants who were working had to get the advantage while using a limited number of techniques. Finally, Hunter managed to land a side kick under Blake's guard and the smaller ninja although still on his feet, skidded back.

"Point!" Shane called, knowing that if someone didn't interfere, the two brothers would just start up again. Hearing the call, the brothers smiled at each other and bowed to each other, turned and bowed to Shane. Hunter dismissed all the students that had gathered to watch.

"Not too bad for someone out of shape," Hunter said with a smile for Blake.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to try to spar with you doing more advanced techniques. They are coming back, but I still feel it," Blake said slipping seamlessly into a stretch.

"Looking good, guys," Leann said with a smile, "It's good to see you still got something, Blake," she teased.

"Yeah, well, he had better be picking stuff up, he spends enough time with Tori after classes," Shane said bumping Blake with a shoulder.

"Training," Blake said.

Shane just shrugged with a smile, "If that's what they are calling it now," Shane waved a hand casually before turning to Leann, "Is that what you and Cam call it?"

Leann stifled a laugh. Since Blake and Tori had the same teaching rotation, which she suspected the two red ninjas had done deliberately, they had been working out together every evening after classes. Blake had said it was to catch up on the techniques and training that he had had forgotten over the past five years. However, everyone knew it was just Blake trying to get more time with Tori. Tori, however, took the sessions as serious training and worked Blake hard those extra hours, much to everyone's amusement.

Blake, meanwhile, with plans for movie night on Friday and date night on Saturday, was content just to spend as much time with Tori as he could. He did not want her to feel like he was pushing a relationship on her. He realized that she was right, before he could act on his attraction. He needed to discover who the grown up Tori Hanson was, just like she had to discover who the grown up Blake Bradley was. Seeing her every day and training with her brought back memories of years before, but also was bringing them to a comfortable level of being together. So he endured the ribbing in amused patience. His only hope was that the guys weren't giving Tori a bad time about him.

"Yeah, you're back early," Shane noted, "Is Tori tired of you, already?"

"Nah, just wanted to spend time with my bro," Blake said with a smile. "Plus, Tori said Kira's coming over to stay with her for a couple of weeks and she's coming in tonight. Tor wanted to clean house a bit. You up for a run?"

"Sure," Hunter said, "Lee, let's go over the student reviews tomorrow. Shane, I'll see you tomorrow at Cam's. Let's see if all that training you've been doing with Tori is doing you any good!"

Two streaks of light, one crimson and the other navy streaked into the sky. Leann and Shane watched them go before Shane turned to Leann to say his goodbyes and head home. Leann gave Shane a hug and turned to the academy. While she worked on the student records, she could instant message Cam.

Hunter and Blake flashed in and out of streaking as they ran across familiar thunder academy terrain. Sometimes Hunter would lead, other times, Blake would. Their laughter could be heard echoing in the forest. This was power, this was strength and this was joy. Hunter stopped in a clearing where he and Blake had done much of their training as children and stretched his head back yelling to release all the emotion built up in him. He was then tackled by Blake, who let out a yell of his own and the two men scuffled like young boys as they rolled on the ground, each trying to pin the other. Finally, as usual, Hunter managed to get the smaller man in a headlock and held him there until Blake yielded. Hunter released Blake and both of them lay on their backs in the clearing breathing heavily with content smiles on their faces.

Finally Hunter said, "You better tell Tori that she's doing a good job getting you back in shape."

"So you want to tell me about you and Tori?" Blake asked casually.

"You mad?"

"No. I was gone. I left her, I left you. I knew you guys were spending a lot of time together after I left. I don't know. When I was gone the first couple of years, I just put Tori behind me. She was part of my saving the world days. These were my racing days.

"The furthest I ever got with her was once telling her I liked her, but there was training and world saving and we were always around you guys, it was a huge effort to get her alone. And we were a team. I think both she and I knew that to change things too much might make it harder on us and everyone else. We had to trust that each person could take care of themselves, but at the same time, always be there if someone needed help. If Tori and I could only concentrate on each other, we wouldn't have been there for any of you guys if you needed help."

Hunter scoffed at that, "Dude, you know better than that. Yeah, we always helped out, but I always watched out for you over the others."

"And I watched out for you, and Shane watched out for Tori and Dustin more, those were choices you guys made as leaders, even if you made them unconsciously. After my rookie year, Roger expected me to take a leadership role for the team. It was hard, but I had you and Shane as examples of what a leader was."

"You did good, bro." Hunter said knowing that with Blake on the Factory Blue team, not only did Blake excel, but the team overall climbed to the top of the rankings and stayed there.

"I did do the whole shoot to fame thing," Blake said quietly. "I was really careful, who I hung with and who I partied with from the beginning, but I did party and while the guys say I more kept them out of serious trouble, I wasn't perfect. It's kind of nuts when people are throwing money at you and sponsorships and stuff."

"Girls?"

Blake sat up and curled his arms around his bent knees. He half smiled as he focused on some of the memories of the past. "Yeah, some," he admitted, "It gets mindless after awhile. It was really hard after seeing Tori in Reefside and then leaving again. I guess after seeing all you guys settled and happy and together, I decided that I was living my life for me. I lived hard for awhile."

"You kept it on the low," Hunter said.

"Most of the guys were way wilder than me. It was easy to be the straight man in that crew. Plus, all those lectures Sensei gave us about honor and duty and responsibility kept me pretty much in the clear."

Blake was quiet for a long moment. He shrugged as if making a decision and he said softly, "You asked her out."

It was a statement, not a question and Hunter sat up, mirroring Blake's position. "Remember the first time we ever saw Tori? She was standing there with Shane and Dustin, dressed in blue with her long blond hair and clear blue eyes. I hated that she was the enemy. I was so focused on revenge. I wouldn't let myself feel anything else. You weren't like that. You saw her through different eyes. I knew that you had a thing for her, even if you guys joke that I didn't know. I knew. And I watched you fumble around her and for a long time I convinced myself I didn't care about her, because you did and I would never do something like that to my bro.

"When you left, it was like this light went out of her. She taught and hung with us and surfed, but she was hurting. I think she decided that she just wasn't good enough. After the whole Reefside thing, she started hitting dance clubs like every night. She hooked up with this guy for awhile, some guy that she met at one of the clubs and they would go out to dinner and then dancing. Then one night, they had a fight and he hit her."

"What?!" Blake looked at his brother shocked. "She never told me."

"She didn't tell anyone. She just healed herself and acted like nothing happened. He ended up dumping her a couple of months later. After that she started going to the clubs again, and even though during the day, she was acting like nothing was wrong, she stopped hanging with us on the weekend and was growing really distant from us. Dustin got worried, which got Cam worried, so we all decided to follow her out one Saturday night.

"That guy was at the club and he made a pass at her but she turned him down, then he got up in her face, and I guess she told him to buzz off or something, then he grabbed her arm and then Tor got this look on her face, like she was spoiling for a fight. She let him drag her out of there. Dude, we were panicking. We rushed out to see that he dragged her down an alley and we watch him slap her once. Then, she belted him, knocked the guy right out. Then she just kind of slid down a wall and cried like she was broken.

"We were totally shocked. None of us had ever seen Tori break down before. Dustin just went into the alley and picked her up. We loaded her into her van and drove her up to Ninja Ops. I woke up Marah and Kapri and they stayed the night with her. The next day, she acted like nothing happened.

"The guys were so freaked; it was like for the first time, they realized she was totally different from them. They were acting like she was this person that they had never met before. I think it was because while she loved the guys, they were suddenly acting like she wasn't their Tori anymore. Shane and Dustin, especially, treated her like glass or something. She started hanging out more at the thunder school. She had some things that she wanted to work through and chose to do it here instead of there."

"She pulled herself together," Blake said. "Right after Reefside, there was this interview in some girl magazine, Cosmo or Elle or something. I know Marah reads it. There was this model I was going out with at the time. I know my name ended up in it, because I remember getting the press clipping. I wondered if she had seen it. She stopped talking to me after that. I would get her voice mail and she wouldn't call back. We would chat on-line or I would get a letter from her occasionally with a whole bunch of stuff about what was going on in the school or with you guys, but nothing about her."

"'We went through too much not to be friends'," Hunter said softly, "she told me that once, when I asked if she was mad that you left."

"God," Blake said running a hand through his hair, "she was going to be my friend even if it killed her."

"We started shadowing her to the clubs. Cam set up a rotation schedule and everything. She started dating, but just once or twice with some guy then they would be gone and there would be someone else. That lasted like another year. Then she stopped that, too."

"So where do you come in?"

"I guess I just looked at her one day and thought, why not? She's here, she's dating guys, you were gone three years, and even when you were home, you never spent any alone time with her, it was just with the group and there was no flirting or anything, so I thought maybe. You know, back when we were rangers, Tori was the center of the group, able to keep us all in line. You get attached. I got attached."

"She turned you down?"

"Flat. And although I loved her, it didn't hurt much, because I knew why she did it. She was so afraid of not measuring up. She still is."

"She's kind of been running me through my paces," Blake said with a grin.

"We know," Hunter grinned back at him.

"I don't think she realizes, that as long as I'm around her, just the way things are, that's all I need."

"Yeah, but you won't be happy with that forever. You need to let her know that, too. Tori tends to over think things, she always did, it's probably the only thing that kept Dustin and Shane alive for so long," Hunter said enjoying Blake's snort of amusement, "She's going to over think you and her. You had better know what you want, bro."

"I want her, if she wants me," Blake looked at Hunter, "I've just got to make her want me."

"You know you can always count on me."

"Bro, I'm going to tell you, after seeing you guys together last weekend, I thought-. I almost went back to Factory Blue."

"She was pissed at me, and she was playing me. We spent a lot of time together after you were gone. I needed someone to ride with and she needed someone to surf with. For a long time, all we talked about was you. Then, we stopped talking about you. But we were never together."

"Did you want to be?"

Hunter shrugged, "I just thought maybe there could be more. I wanted to see if there could be. We wouldn't have done it to hurt you. And Saturday, I think Tori did it kind of unconsciously, you know, hanging around Cam has given her this really nasty streak. I don't think she did it to deliberately hurt you. I think she thinks she can't hurt you anymore."

"Hanging around Cam? From what Shane and Dustin say, it's from hanging around with you," Blake laughed as Hunter pushed him over. Blake lay back on the grass for a minute before saying softly, "She can."

"I know, bro, I'm sorry."

"Not your fault, I made a choice five years ago. Now I have to live with that choice."

"Be careful with her. You may be my bro, but Tori's special."

Blake looked at Hunter and shot him a sad smile, "You think I don't know that? I was riding and winning and there was money and girls and it all felt empty. I got a letter from her one day, and after a really horrible practice, I was lying in bed and I opened it. It was right after Cam and Leann got caught making out on your desk by Marah and Kapri. I was laughing so hard and I realized I was missing her. That since I left, that emptiness I had been trying to fill was just a bit of Tori in my life."

"Cam and Leann were making out on my desk?"

Blake chocked on his laughter, "Huh, yeah, that was about four months ago and I figured I'd been away long enough."

"Cam and Leann made out on my desk?!"

"Um, yeah."

Hunter turned only what could be termed as an evil grin to his brother, "I am going to make Leann pay. I will need your help."

Blake stood, hands spread in front of him, "No way, bro, uh-uh. If Tori finds out I messed with Cam and Leann, I'm going to be up a creek. Dude, Tori and Leann, you don't want to mess with them."

"I know, I know, they hit hard." Hunter rolled his eyes before saying earnestly, "Come on, you aren't going let two little girls scare you. Nothing bad, I just need you to be a distraction. You know, you need Cam and Leann's help with the whole Tori situation. You know, double date, advice, shopping for new clothes.

"I've always been there for you, bro."

"Some days I hate it when you say that," Blake groused, "When it all comes out, I want you to swear to tell them that I didn't want to help you."

"Nothing bad is going to happen," Hunter protested.

"Famous last words, bro, famous last words."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See earlier chapters

Movie night at Cam's house was an event that happened once a month. They used to do it far more often when it was just the rangers, and they moved from home to home. As the group now included Leann, Marah and Kapri, the only place large enough to host movie night was Cam's.

Tori's van pulled up with Shane and Dustin at seven o'clock sharp, bearing sodas and pizzas. They were let in and quickly made themselves at home in the kitchen and living room where the flat screen TV was set up.

The doorbell rang and Cam yelled for Shane to get the door as he and Tori were still setting up the food in the kitchen. Shane smiled as he let in the group from the thunder academy bearing their own food contributions. "Brownies?" he asked taking a big sniff.

"Chocolate cake," Marah replied, "and Kapri has the ice cream."

"Excellent," was Shane's reply as the group got together in the kitchen around the island that Tori and Cam had set up. Piling food on their plates, the group laughed and joked with each other, talking about their students and their lives.

"I hear someone has a hot date tomorrow night," Marah said with a teasing note in her voice.

Blake watched as Tori's eyes went flat, even though her smile stayed in place. "Yeah, Hunter," Kapri spoke up, "where is Kira?"

"Hunter has a date with Kira?" Dustin asked.

"Shane!"

"What? You didn't say not to tell anyone," Shane protested with a wide grin, "They would have found out anyway. Don't you have Kapri and Marah look over your clothes before you go out on a date?"

"I was trying to get out of the shopping."

"Why would you have to shop for new clothes?" Dustin asked absently.

"Because it's a date," Marah said rolling her eyes.

"No, cousin, you just look at it as an excuse to go shopping," Cam said.

"Oh, like you haven't asked us to go shopping with you when you want to impress Leann on a date," Kapri replied.

Leann, sitting next to Cam, smothered a chuckle, "Did you now?"

Cam gave her a wry look, "Have you ever tried to get them to not take you shopping? It was easier to give in."

"You totally needed a wardrobe update, anyway," Kapri shot back, "I'm sure Leann is very grateful that you are fashionably dressed and not going around in your ninja uniform or your former geek clothes, anymore. I know I am."

Hunter snorted down a laugh, "Just give up, Cam. I had to."

"Yeah," Shane said, "I am sure all of us are better dressed now that Kapri and Marah are around to dictate our fashion choices. Although, I remember a time when they dressed Tori in something truly horrific."

Tori dropped her face in her hands, "Oh, don't remind me!" she moaned and everyone laughed.

"I thought she looked good," Marah said with a small pout.

"For a discotheque in the 70's," Blake replied giving Tori a half hug in consolation.

"We did have fun after the Jade Turtle incident," Kapri said.

Tori grinned widely at the girls. She did love that clothes adventure after finding the Jade Turtle. Maybe that was when she realized that Marah and Kapri were really just girls, just like her. For awhile, without anyone's knowledge, the three of them would head to a mall in the next town over for an afternoon shopping spree. They became shopping buddies and girlfriends. When Leann came back to the thunder academy full time, Tori found in her a soul mate. She loved her boys and always would, but she having close girlfriends was an experience she cherished.

"Cake!" Shane said with enthusiasm as dinner was finished. Tori just shook her head and stood to start cleaning up the dishes and food. Blake moved immediately to help her and many of the others grinned at the sight of the two working together. They didn't flirt as they had all those years ago. Instead, it was a comfortable pair working together.

"Looks like all those extra workouts made a difference," Dustin said eyeing the pair carefully. He, Tori and Shane had been friends the longest, having met in elementary school. Tori had always been a friend and defender growing up. She stood up to his bullies, yet never made him feel like he couldn't handle the situation himself. She believed in him when he didn't believe in himself. Over the past few years, Dustin had been watching her carefully and he saw the barriers she put up, even if none of the others saw them. When she cut herself off from the group, he felt it the most. He still worried about her, not as much as he used to, but it was he that rallied the guys into watching out for Tori when she went clubbing. Around him, Tori didn't put on the act of being happy. She would just be Tori.

"She'll be o.k.," Marah said slipping into the seat next to him and taking his arm companionably as he watched Tori and Blake load dishes in the dishwasher and slip leftovers into the fridge. Dustin gave a small smile, "She's tough and Blake can be patient."

Dustin shrugged, "I guess none of us want to see her hurting like she was before."

"You can't stop her from getting hurt," Marah said seriously, "Everyone gets hurt."

Dustin turned to look at Marah and saw a bit of shadow in her expression, "I'm sorry I hurt you."

Marah smiled, "You didn't really. You've been really nice this week in classes."

"I was pushing you too hard. I owe you an apology for that. Chalk it up to not being a really good instructor even after almost five years. I messed up with you, I hope you forgive me."

"Of course, Dustin," Marah said comfortably leaning her head on his shoulder as she continued to watch Tori and Blake.

Dustin squeezed Marah's hand and leaned over to give her a soft kiss on the temple, "Thanks, Marah. One of these days, we'll take a hike or something and I promise to tell you all about it, o.k.?"

Marah just gave Dustin one of her mega-watt smiles and clapped happily as Blake brought her and Dustin plates of dessert. Blake just smiled at her happiness. Although he had been next to Tori most of the evening, she was pretty emotionally distant. He was grateful that Shane and Kapri had bothered Hunter about his date with Kira, rather than Blake's date tomorrow night with Tori.

"So, where is Kira tonight?" Blake asked.

"She's playing at the Comet Club. Her last set ends at almost midnight. She plays tomorrow at the Line Room but it's an early set, so I think she and Hunter are going out at around eight thirty," Tori said wiping down the counters in the kitchen more for something to do than to actually clean them. Although she attended every movie night, sometimes, she didn't want to. Usually the guys understood and left her alone when she wanted to be alone and she was grateful. Tonight, with Cam and Leann finally acting like a couple, and Dustin and Marah seemingly settling their differences, and Hunter being teased about his date tomorrow, Tori felt a little unsettled. Or maybe it was because Blake wasn't leaving her alone like the guys usually did when she was quiet and by herself.

"You o.k, Tori?" Blake asked. She gave him a wan smile. "Hey, you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothings wrong, really," she said, "Just feeling tired, maybe." Alone, was the word that echoed in her thoughts.

She felt Blake place a hand on her shoulder. "You want to take a rain check for tomorrow night?" He felt Tori freeze and he bit his lip.

"No, I – I don't know," Tori stuttered, "Whatever you want, Blake."

Blake tiled his head to the side. He noticed the others were getting up and filing into the living room and was grateful for the bit of privacy. "Tori, look at me," Blake said softly, "come on Tor, you've never been afraid to look at me or give it to me straight. I don't ever want that to change. I know I've been gone a long time. But I'm going to let you know now. I don't intend to go away again. I want to be here and I want to be with you. But you have to want it, too."

Tori looked into his brown eyes. So serious, she thought, so intent on believing that what he says is true. A million thoughts ran through her head, all of them jumbling into a mass of confusion. "Tori, Blake?" Hunter stuck his head into the kitchen and saw the two standing, facing each other frozen. The tension in the room was high. Tori looked like she was about to bolt, Blake looked edgy, but determined. Eyes narrowing, Hunter approached the pair. "Tori," he said softly, placing an arm around her shoulder. Hunter was startled when Tori flung her arms around his middle and buried herself against him. His eyes flew to Blake's and saw raw pain etched there.

Hunter wrapped his arms around Tori and started rocking her gently side to side. "Go kick Shane and Dustin off the love seat. I'll bring Tori in a minute. It'll be o.k., bro," Hunter said quietly and watched a defeated Blake pad off towards the living room.

"God, Hunter, I can't go in there," Tori hissed into his shirt.

"Yes, you can, Tor. Head up. You can't just walk out, all the guys would get freaked out and they would all blame Blake and he'd probably be all beaten up for your date tomorrow night," Hunter crooned gently into her hair. "He loves you, you know." She didn't say anything, but he could feel her take a deep breath, "Come on, he's all flipped out that he did something that you can never forgive him for." Hunter pulled back a bit and slid his fingers through Tori's hair.

"I don't know what to do," Tori said sounding like a lost little girl and Hunter drew her close for another hug.

"We are going to walk in there, and you and Blake and I are going to sit on the love seat and watch some movies. You can lean against me, but I want you to do me a favor and hold Blake's hand, just like you would Dustin's or Cam's or Shane's. It would calm him down, and after he's been sitting in there like the house is going to explode any minute, I'm sure it will help calm everyone else down as well. We're your friends, Tor, if you can't have a moment with us, who can you have a moment with?" Hunter soothed. He felt Tori nod against him and this time she pulled back.

"I don't have to smile, do I?"

Hunter grinned, "You don't even have to try."

Tori gripped his hand in hers and allowed him to lead her into the living room. The first movie had already started and just like Hunter said, Blake sat alone on one end of Cam's love seat. She slipped onto the sofa next to Blake and Hunter settled himself next to her. It was a little tight, but not uncomfortably so. Blake didn't look at her and she didn't look at him, but she slipped a hand down his forearm in a soft caress before entwining her fingers with his. She gave his hand a squeeze and breathed a sigh of relief when he gently squeezed back. Shane and Dustin shifted a bit so that they leaned lightly against her legs for the first half of the movie, lending their love and support. During a break between the first and second movie, Cam stood to refresh drinks and make some popcorn, gently stroking a hand over Tori's hair as he walked by the loveseat.

Comforted by the support from her friends and a little worn from her earlier emotional outburst, Tori nodded off in the first ten minutes of the second film. Hunter shifted Tori so that she lay with her head on his shoulder and her feet draped over Blake, her hand still clasped with his. "She o.k.?" Shane asked softly.

"Yeah," Hunter said with an encouraging look to Blake, "She's going to be just fine."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Hunter stood and looked at himself critically in the mirror of his bathroom. He tilted his head to one side, then the other. He turned, looking over his shoulder and examined his back before finishing the turn and frowning. "Will you get out of there already, if the mirror hasn't cracked yet, it's not going to crack. You are just not ugly enough." Kapri said with a sigh in her voice.

"Come on, bro," Blake called with a laugh, "Let's see what you look like."

Hunter sighed and looked himself over once more before going to his bathroom door and opening it. Marah, Kapri and Leann lay sprawled on his bed while Blake lounged in the chair by his desk. All of them eyed him carefully. "Good job, girls," Blake complemented with a smirk, "He looks almost as good as me."

Leann stifled a giggle as she stood to walk around Hunter. He was dressed in new black jeans and a nice pair of boots with a very hip crimson collared shirt under a black sports coat. He had spiked his dark blond hair and looked very dressy casual. "Nice. I made reservations for you at Clements for eight thirty. Here are the keys for the convertible," she dropped the keys to her flashy blue sports care into Hunter's hand, "try not to keep her out too late." She gave him a peck on the cheek and as she walked out, Marah and Kapri jumped up, kissed Hunter on the cheek and followed Leann.

"Wow, she gave you the convertible. Maybe you should just let go of the desk incident."

Hunter glared at Blake, "Why aren't you all dressed up?"

Blake shrugged. "I told Tori we'd go casual. Mario's for pizza, a movie, maybe a walk on the beach if she wants to go out. If not, we could order in and watch some videos and play cards or something."

"That's not really a date," Hunter scoffed.

"Yeah, but after last night, I want to do what she's comfortable with. She'll let me know. I'm going to save things like Clements for later."

"I can't believe that Leann talked me into Clements."

"It's a nice place. A little pricey, but hey, if you want to impress the girl."

"Yeah, well, we'll see if it pays off."

"Do you like her?" Blake asked, curious.

"She's gorgeous, and smart and talented and we don't have to hide from her, the ninja thing, and the ranger thing. She understands that sometimes we have to break a date to save the world. Not that we have to do that much anymore, but you never know. She's not going to break easily and I'm excited that Tori is going to bring her to the academy to do some training. See how she was trained. Whether I like her or not depends on tonight," Hunter said.

"You going to drop me at Tori's before going to the club?" Blake asked. "You can bring me home when you drop of Kira."

"Sure, let's go."

Hunter dropped Blake at Tori's house and drove over to the Line Room, a small, but popular club on the beach. Kira had left Hunter's name at the door and he was able to walk into the club to see Kira finishing off her set. He stood in the back of the room and cheered with the crowd as she finished her last number and as the band started packing up, he approached the stage. Kira brightened when he caught her eye and waved. She said something to her band and hopped off the stage with her guitar case and a tote bag the size of Alaska, meeting Hunter in the middle of the club. "Hi," she said brightly, "am I dressed o.k. or do we need to go change? You look kind of spiffed up."

Hunter returned her smile and gave a small shrug unaware that his cheeks were a little pink, "Yeah, well, Marah, Kapri and Leann got a hold of me. Not that I can't dress myself, because I can, but they do this girly thing when any of us has a date. It's kind of embarrassing."

Kira chuckled remembering when Ethan and Conner would ask her opinion on their clothes when she could really have cared less. "It's nice to have friends who want to take care of you. Mostly I had to keep the guys in line."

"Anyway, you look fine, you look great," Hunter back tracked, and he thought she did. Her hair was loose and in waves, her eyes were emphasized by the dark make-up on her lids contrasting with her pale smooth skin and light pink lips. She was dressed in a black and yellow tank top and handkerchief skirt with a wide belt and layers of silver and black beads around her neck. "It's a nice place, but lost of people there show up casual. It's like beach dress or something. If you want to get a jacket, though, it might get cooler, later."

"Got one," she said, hoisting her tote bag.

"Would you like me to get any of that or are you o.k.?" Hunter asked.

"I got it. Just lead the way."

Hunter smiled, talking her elbow and gently guided her through the crowd at the club. "I caught the last of your set. You looked awesome up there."

"I love it. Performing is a rush. I'm just glad that I can get out and get gigs, there are lots of artists who never get the chance to be on stage, and lots of them are more talented than me," Kira said breathing a sigh as they made it out of the club and walked over to the borrowed car, "Nice car. Connor would be jealous."

"It's Leann's, she let me borrow it. I didn't think you'd like much to be on the back of a bike tonight," Hunter said opening the trunk for Kira to slip her guitar in. She also dropped in her bag, just taking out a small wallet and her jacket before letting him close the trunk.

"I miss the bike. Haley had set us up these awesome raptor cycles. I'm sure Dr. O has them stashed somewhere, but it's kind of conspicuous going around on a bright yellow bike with fins."

"You should get your own bike," Hunter said opening the door for her.

"Not practical. I am not Kikaida. I don't want to be on a bike with my guitar strapped across my back. My baby cost way too much for me to treat her like that."

"Well, if you want, we can cut a work-out day to go riding," Hunter offered as he climbed in and started the car to go to the restaurant, "I'm sure Tori would let you borrow her bike and you and I can just do some nice street riding along the beach. Or, if you want to be adventurous, we can take a couple of dirt bikes around the track or off road."

"Really?" Kira asked, "You won't get in trouble for cutting out of teaching one day?"

"Nah, I'm in charge, I get to set the schedule. Not to mention, since Blake is back, it's like having an extra person all the time. I was thinking about setting up a more relaxed schedule," Hunter winked and shot a grin at Kira, "I'm just glad I have a reason to try it out first."

Tori looked out the window as a car pulled up in her driveway and she saw Blake get out of Leann's car. She watched as the brothers spoke for a minute, before bumping fists. Blake turned to the house and Hunter backed the car out of the drive. Tori bit her lip and watched as he walked up the drive and knock on the door. She took a deep breath and moved to open the door. "Hey," she said brightly, stepping back to let him in her small two bedroom house.

"Moved out from your parents place? This is nice," he said looking around the little bungalow house on the beach.

"It was a graduation present. They were so thrilled that I even went to college, much less finished. They don't really get the whole martial arts teacher thing, but they know it makes me happy, so they are pretty o.k. with that. It's small, but it's just me and my surfboards and the guys when they come over."

The house itself was the size of a postage stamp, but there were no walls between the kitchen, dining and living room areas, making it look bigger than it was. The walls were painted in soft blues, pinks and yellows and the furniture was sparse, but comfortable for a single person with one or two close friends to hang out with.

"The best thing about the house is the deck," Tori said leading him through the kitchen to the deck that spanned with width of the house and was large enough for a table and a scattering of deck chairs, a small barbeque and sink and shower area, "We hang out here all the time." They stood silently for a moment watching the waves crash against the shore and the sun just finishing its descent.

"How are you and Kira getting along?" Blake asked.

"We get along great, she's neat and it's nice to have guitar music all the time. She's only been here two days. We'll see how the next week goes. Sensei invited her to train up at the wind school, so I think she's going up with me on Monday. She says she is out of shape, though and that we might just kill her, so I made Dustin and Shane promise to be nice."

"What about Cam?" Blake asked.

"Cam's too mature to do stuff to Kira; it's the other two jokers that I worry about."

"True," Blake said.

"And I figure I didn't have to warn Hunter, because if he wants to keep seeing her, he's got to stay on her good side."

Blake took her hand, "Hey, can we talk about something?" Without waiting for an answer, Blake pulled her gently towards the sofa in the living room area. He took a seat on one end and Tori sat pulling her legs up so she could sit facing him. "In fact, Tor, you don't have to talk if you don't want to. Listening is good.

"I love you. I don't know why I couldn't say that all those years ago. I don't know if it would have changed anything. I do want to say, that back then, when I left, I didn't love you enough to stay. And that had nothing to do with you, and everything to do with me. I couldn't even tell you how much I needed you in my life, how much you meant to me. I was scared, if I had said anything, if I had stayed, would I have missed something great? Would I have regretted not riding professionally?"

"Blake," Tori broke in a bit harshly, "Can we not do this? I really don't want to do this. That was five years ago. In the past, I've moved past it."

"No, you haven't," Blake insisted.

"O.k., let's try this, then. I really don't want to talk about it."

"Did you not hear the statement, 'I love you'?" Blake questioned intently.

"Sure you love me. I love you, too."

"No, don't do that. Don't try to make it sound like I'm just like all the other guys. I know Shane and Cam, Hunter and Dustin love you and you love them. That's not the kind of love I'm talking about here."

Tori unconsciously sat back, distancing from Blake emotionally and physically. Blake swore inwardly. He was pushing, he knew it, but Hunter had been right. If Tori and he didn't communicate what each other really wanted, past all the hurt and insecurities, there was only heartache ahead.

"Tori, after we joined up with you, have I ever lied to you?" Tori's brilliant blue eyes met his and she shook her head. "I'm just letting you know what I want. I want to see if I can have a relationship with you now, but that's not going to happen unless we are ready to look at the past and come to some understanding about it."

Tori bit her bottom lip and Blake smiled at the habit, reaching out with his hand to brush her bottom lip with his thumb. "You don't have to answer now. You don't have to make a decision now, just know that I am interested in pursuing a relationship with you beyond friendship. I just want to know if you want to meet me half way. I want to know if you are willing to let go some of the insecurities and hurt and let me make some of that up to you."

"Do you know how much crying I did over you?" Tori asked with a serious expression on her face. She tilted her head to the side and gave Blake a sad half smile, "Before it was just this huge uncertainty. You never wanted to get close and I had no clue how to go about anything. I had been best friends with guys my whole life and after the whole Dill fiasco. It was nice having you around, someone that was safe, that liked me, but-

"It was hard being the only girl. The weakest one, the vulnerable one," she smiled self-depreciatingly, "As much as Marah and Kapri and Leann are great, I still don't fit. I'm too much of a tomboy and I don't need the girly group interaction before a date. You know that model you dated?" Tori saw Blake cringe, "She was so different from me, glamorous, gorgeous, and flashy. What did you see in her?"

Blake laughed and ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed. "Yeah, I thought you might have seen that."

"Marah reads those magazines religiously," Tori replied, "When your name popped up, she gave a copy of the article to all of us, including Grandma and the Senseis."

"Oh, God," Blake said, horrified.

"I know Watanabe Sensei just smiled and thanked Marah politely. It was rather amusing to think that the Senseis would actually read the article, but it was sweet of her."

"Hunter said you changed after that."

"Hunter can keep his mouth shut," Tori replied a little coolly.

"Tor, you know Hunter would never do anything to hurt you. He was more worried that I would hurt you by being stupid and insensitive."

Tori snorted, "Like any of you really think about whether or not you are intelligent and sensitive. Most of the time you guys are lucky and just do the right thing. Heaven knows I tried to beat it into you hard enough. Especially Shane and Dustin, and even that didn't take too well. You didn't answer my question," she prompted.

"You want to know about Shauna? Shauna was all those things you said, but the nicest thing about Shauna was she was never really there. She was someone to talk to on the phone, or to be seen with when events had us at the same place at the same time. She kept the guys from razzing me too much about girls. Really she kept the guys from throwing all these girls at me. She was nice and fun and undemanding. I think I was the same thing for her. We rarely saw each other. The media touted us as girlfriend and boyfriend but only ever managed to get solo shots of us, because we were never really together. Our 'relationship' was a public relations blurb," Blake said, "We genuinely liked each other, mutually used each other and parted amicably." Blake laughed a little self-depreciatingly.

"When I told you that I was leaving, I want you to know, it was one of the hardest decisions I ever made. I was leaving everyone and everything behind and going out into a world where I could have failed spectacularly. I was lucky and I worked hard, and I had a support system that I could fall back on. I used to print out all your e-mails and read them over and over when I got depressed or lonely or had a really bad ride. I kept all the letters." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind Tori's ear.

"I don't know, Blake. I don't know if I can do this."

"Can we try? I don't want you thinking I'm not serious, because I am. I don't want you to be unsure about where you and I stand, because I don't want you to feel insecure in my feelings for you like you have been feeling all of these years. I want to try. We don't have to do anything now, and if it seems like it's not working out, I want us to talk about it. Tori Hansen, you make me glad that I am alive and I want to spend as much of my life with you as possible and I want us to let this whole conversation go for now and go grab some dinner and maybe a movie or a walk on the beach, or we could track down Hunter and Kira. I think they were going to head to Donavan's after dinner for dancing. You know Hunter dances like a spaz." Tori smothered a giggle, "Look there's my pretty girl," Blake said with a smile, "We could call all the other guys to meet us so that we could all mock Hunter on his date."

"That's horrible, Blake," Tori said with a reproving frown, but she couldn't keep the twinkle from her eyes.

"But fun."

"I swear, one of these days someone is going to get hurt."

"Probably Hunter, especially after Leann gets her hands on him."

"What?" Tori asked.

"You know, the whole making out on Hunter's desk story you wrote me?"

"You told him!"

Blake just shrugged, "It kind of got out."

"So now Hunter has some crazy scheme to get back at Cam and Leann?"

"I'm the distraction," he said proudly.

Tori shook her head, "I'm going to have to warn Cam and Leann."

"Why?"

"The last prank war that Leann and Hunter had about a year ago got so crazy that we had to re-sod the thunder academy field and rebuild the gazebo," Tori said wryly, "Watanabe Sensei banned having Hunter and Leann at the Wind Academy at the same time for six months."

"Yeah, I heard about the gazebo and the field, but I didn't know about the ban," Blake said.

"Let's just say, arriving to find the waterfall dammed up was the last straw."

"I don't even want to know how that happened," Blake said before looking at Tori suspiciously, "You helped him, didn't you?"

Tori looked down and blushed. Blake laughter caused her to look up at him with narrowed eyes, "He used the puppy dog eyes, and he said –"

"I've always been there for you," they finished together and Tori snorted continuing, "like you have anything to say, you're helping him now."

"Hey, us Bradleys, we stick together. So, you want to go out?"

Tori tilted her head to the side and made a face, "If you want."

"Or we could order something in. I brought cards and a couple of board games. We could just watch TV, hang out here? Hunter's going to pick me up when his date with Kira is done, or I could call Cam and hang at his place or something."

"And how would you manage that? I'm sure Cam and Leann are off together somewhere."

Blake grinned, "Oh, yeah, but remember, Leann's like a big sister and I've been the distraction, lately. All I'd have to do is give them some terrible sap story about how I totally messed up with you and how miserable I am about it and I think I could get Leann convinced that she and Cam had to console me."

Tori shook her head and looked at him incredulously, "You are absolutely incredible. And I mean that in the most horrible way!"

"So, come on, Tor, you can't kick me out," he shifted on the sofa so he was right next to her and playfully bumped her shoulder with his, "You'd be responsible for ruining Cam and Leann's evening out."

Tori just sighed and got to her feet pulling up Blake after her. "We can come back here, after, but there's a nice little Chinese place up the beach. It wasn't here before. I pick up from there lots. The guys love it."

Tori grabbed up her keys and a small clutch purse on the way to the door. As she opened it, Blake pulled on her hand softly, "Hey, Tor, we o.k.?"

Tori just squeezed his hand and said, "We're o.k."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Hunter and Kira pulled into the driveway of Tori's small house. Hunter shut off the engine and the lights and turned to Kira taking one of her hands in his, "Have I offered you a room at the Thunder Academy?" he asked softly.

Kira smiled, "Yes, and you have enumerated the benefits of me staying there a couple of times tonight."

Hunter played with her hand until his fingers entwined with hers, "And you won't come up and stay there because?"

"I like staying with Tori," she said as she watched him idly play with her fingers, caressing her hand. "I'm going to see more of you this week. I'm heading to the Wind Academy to train tomorrow and if you clear your schedule, you promised to take me riding."

Hunter leaned in and Kira thought he was going to kiss her, but he shifted his face at the last moment. She could feel him bury his face in her hair and felt his breath tickle her ear. "Hunter," she said with a lazy smile.

"Hmm, your hair smells good," he murmured.

"Hunter, we have an audience."

"What?"

"Hey, bro, looks like the date went well," Hunter jumped at the sound of his brother's voice and spun to see Blake leaning against the car watching Hunter and Kira with an amused smile on his face, "Tori wants to know if you guys want to come in for coffee or if I should just get my stuff so we can head home?"

Hunter growled and glared at his brother before looking towards the house to see Tori wave at him happily from her living room window. He closed his eyes and dropped his head back on the headrest with a groan. From beside him, he heard Kira stifle a giggle. "Blake, go on ahead and tell Tori that I would really like a cup of coffee and to strangle the both of you at the moment."

Blake just winked at Kira. "It's made and everything. Do you want some, Kira?"

"Just some of the apple juice in the fridge. Why don't you head on in and give us a moment."

Blake turned and faced them as he walked backwards towards the house, "So, Hunter, are you the kind of guy that kisses on the first date?" With that parting shot he turned and sprinted for the front door of the house closing it behind him. The porch light, then, came on.

"Is he gone?" Hunter asked in a defeated voice.

"Yeah," Kira replied with a huge grin on her face as she watched Hunter, who had been amazingly charming all night wallow in a miasma of embarrassed anguish.

"I'm so sorry."

"Hunter," Kira paused until Hunter turned to her and opened his eyes, "That's what teammates are for. I can't tell you how horrible Conner and Ethan acted when Trent and I were dating, or the crazy things we did to Ethan when he was trying to hook up with some girl. Conner is our favorite to annoy, though, because he's such a goofball when it comes to girls, but he tries to play it cool, you know?"

"Why would I know?"

"Cause I think you're pretty cool," Kira said. She glanced at the house, "I think our audience is back."

Hunter turned to the front of the house to see both Tori and Blake's faces pressed up against the window watching them. He felt Kira move and her lips brushed against his cheek before she moved to get out of the car, "Pop the trunk, would you, please? I have to get my stuff."

Automatically, Hunter pulled the lever to open the trunk and was scrambling out of the car as Kira closed her car door and moved to pull her guitar and tote bag out of the trunk. Hunter took her bag automatically, but left her carrying the guitar as he closed the trunk. He followed her to the door and before she could open it, he halted her by taking her hand. Kira paused and looked up at Hunter.

"So are you?" Hunter asked.

"Am I what?"

Hunter smiled and tugged on her hand pulling her a bit closer to him, "The kind of girl who kisses on the first date?"

Kira smiled back and after peeking around Hunter's shoulder at the window, she slipped her free hand around Hunter's neck pulling gently and went up on her tip toes. She felt him lower his head towards her and tilted her head slightly to the right, her eyes fluttering closed right before her lips met his for a soft, sweet second, before she pulled back with a small smile and a light blush tinting her cheeks. She turned, opened the door, took her bag from him and slipped inside, leaving the door open.

Hunter watched her slip through the living room, and heard her say "hi" to Tori and Blake, and that she was putting her stuff in the guest room. When she disappeared from sight, Hunter strolled though the door closing it behind him. He tried to glare at Tori and Blake who stood leaning against each other watching him with huge grins plastered on their faces, but he could not stop the grin that stretched across his face.

"Looks like Hunter is the kind of guy that kisses on a first date," Tori commented to Blake who just chuckled.

"Knock it off, you two. And I don't want to hear that you've been bugging Kira for details or girl talk or whatever Marah and Kapri go on about after a date," Hunter said attempting to glare at the two blue ninjas.

"Blake, why don't you take the drinks on the deck," Tori said with a smile as she opened the door to the patio and turned on the light.

When Blake obliged, Tori walked up to Hunter and he automatically slipped his arms loosely around her shoulders as she looped her arms around his waist, "Did you have a good time?"

"What are you, my mother?" Hunter asked.

"No," Tori said shaking her head, "I'm just hoping you had a nice time."

"I did. Did you?"

Tori shrugged and gave him a hug before letting him go, "We picked up Chinese and he taught me to play some crazy card game that I can't remember the name of."

Hunter just raised an eyebrow at Tori, but was prevented from saying anything further when Kira came back into the room in a long sleeved sweater and jeans. She had washed the make up from her face and Hunter couldn't help but think about how tiny and delicate she looked in her oversized sweater with her hair in pigtails. Hunter extended a hand to Kira and she took it and let him lead her out to the deck and Tori followed.

"I love it out here on the beach," Kira said settling in one of the comfortable deck chairs, smiling as Blake handed her a glass of juice. Hunter took up a mug of coffee and blew on the top before taking a sip.

Blake and Tori had settled next to each other on a double wide chair and he had an arm slipped around her and she leaned on him comfortably. "Looks like they had a nice evening," Kira murmured softly to Hunter as she watched Blake whisper something to Tori's ear.

Hunter smiled as he watched Tori smile and snuggle deeper into Blake's side. "I don't know. I hope so. Blake and Tori have always had something special. I'm glad that Blake is going after what he wants. I don't think Tori has a chance." Kira smiled at Hunter's belief in Blake's ability to woo Tori. "And what about you, miss singing star? How come you are free to go out with a lowly ninja teacher like me?"

Kira shrugged, "Trent and me broke up a couple of years ago. We're still close. Tommy says it's pretty much the same with any ranger couple that breaks up. And I believe it after seeing him and Kim and Kat together. It's like they are best friends. I guess in a way Trent and I are still best friends, but more like I am with both Connor and Ethan. They just always tease Trent and I because we're closer, used to each others likes and dislikes and habits. Connor and Ethan don't know, but Trent has the hots for this comic book artist that he met at Comic-con last year. They are really cute together."

"Are you avoiding the question?" Hunter asked slipping a hand down her arm until he held her hand in his.

"No, just giving you some background," Kira retorted with a smile, "After Trent, I kind of played the scene a little. It was hard though, with all the guys checking up on me. Between Tommy and Trent and Connor and Ethan, it was rough trying to find someone that wouldn't be intimidated by their macho crap, or that would tolerate having three over-protective guys and one ex-boyfriend hanging around. It's hard enough having a relationship and then having to keep secrets. And no one gets the dinosaur jokes."

Hunter chuckled, "Yeah, I guess that's another thing that keeps you close, besides the daily life endangering save the world stuff, it's the secrets."

"Something that you and your closest friends know that no one else knows. There's an automatic connection. Since we have Tommy as our mentor, over the years, we've met a whole bunch of other rangers, not only your team, although you guys are the most fun."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Anyway, there's this instant understanding that what we went through in our lives, these people also went through. It's comforting and strengthening to know that they made it out o.k. and are successful and living their own lives with families and children and that we can have that, too."

"Is that what you want? A husband and children?" Hunter asked with a smile.

"And a recording deal and a few platinum albums hanging on the wall, a mansion on a bluff with my own recording studio and a line of clothing." She looked over to see Hunter smirking at her, "Hey, if I'm dreaming, I might as well dream big."

Hunter laughed warmly. "Sometimes I think we haven't moved on. We've grown and matured, and there really hasn't been any real threat lately, but," Hunter shrugged, "We six are still charged with keeping the world safe in some way."

"Teaching."

"The next generation of guardians of the planet," Hunter agreed. "Sometimes I think one of these days; I'm going to be like Watanabe Sensei mentoring a team of our successors against an earth-shattering evil. It scares me to death, but when I think that the alternative might be Dustin leading a team. . ." Hunter shuddered and Kira laughed.

"You wouldn't be alone, there are so many of us, with or without powers, who would come to your aid in any way we could. And you shouldn't bag on Dustin. We hear stories all the time from the older rangers about how scatterbrained Tommy was. I think Kim once said, 'I wanted to surgically implant a watch on his wrist so that he would be on time for something and wouldn't loose it.'"

Hunter smiled. They sat in silence a few moments, watching the waves and listening as the waves crashed against the beach.

"Uh, guys?" a soft voice broke into their quiet and Kira and Hunter turned to look at Blake who was smiling like an idiot. Tori, snuggled up against him, had fallen asleep. "Sorry to cut short the evening, although it is almost one o'clock, but I think we had better head home, Hunter."

"You need help with her, bro?" Hunter asked.

"Nah, I got her if you help with the doors."

Hunter stood and started gathering up the cups, while Kira opened the patio door and walked ahead of Blake as he carried a sleeping Tori through the small house. Kira led him to Tori's bedroom, pulled back the covers on the bed, then discreetly moved back to the kitchen where she heard Hunter rinsing the cups and placing them in the dishwasher.

Blake whispered a thank you as she slipped by him. He carefully laid Tori on her bed, slipping off her flats and taking the hair clip out of her hair. He tucked her in, watching her shift around for a moment as she got comfortable. When she stilled, he bent over and placed a soft kiss on her lips, "Goodnight, Tor," he said before slipping out the room and closing the door.

Hunter and Kira were just finishing with the dishes and Blake gathered up the deck of cards and slipped them into his backpack. "We better head out, Hunter."

"In a sec, Blake," Hunter said looking at Kira, "So, I'll see you Monday at the Wind Academy? I'll let you know when we can go for a ride."

Kira smiled, "That would be great," she looked over into the living room where Blake was turning off lights. "Kiss me goodnight?"

Hunter obliged, but it was a quick soft kiss and he was backing up towards the door when Kira's eyes fluttered open. "Lock up after us." Kira nodded and after latching the door, watched from the window as Blake and Hunter drove away. With a giddy smile on her face, she waltzed through Tori's apartment to her room.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: See previous parts

Hunter was a very light sleeper. It probably began at the first orphanage that he was placed in, fear of the unknown after his parents had passed, the hazing that occurred with not enough adult supervision, made him leery of the oblivion of sleep. After he was adopted, there were still the nightmares that plagued Blake. He would be startled awake by yelling and crying and his parents hurrying down the hall to comfort his younger brother. After his parent's death, he was the one waking Blake from his nightmares and allowing the younger, smaller child to share a bed with him. Over the years it was habit to sleep light and sleep little, so early Sunday morning, when he heard the whispering out in the hall way he just groaned and said, "Bring coffee and you can come in."

Feet scurried away and after five minutes, where Hunter rolled out of bed, used the restroom and threw on some comfortable sweats, a light knock came on his door before it opened and Marah and Kapri were framed in the doorway with a tray with coffee and five cups. "Blake and Leann are coming in just a minute," Marah said placing the tray on Hunter's desk and pouring him a cup and handing it to him. She then prepared a cup for Kapri and her before the two girls seated themselves at the foot of his bed with bright eager expressions on their faces.

"You know, I am entitled to a private life," Hunter said after taking a sip of coffee.

"Of course you are," Marah agreed.

"So I don't have to tell you anything," Hunter continued.

"Of course you don't," Kapri said.

"You aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"

"Of course we aren't," Leann said coming in a pouring a cup of coffee for herself, "what would be the fun in that?" She sat in a chair and smirked behind her cup.

"Why aren't they bugging you about your date with Cam?" Hunter asked grouchily.

"They've heard enough stories about Cam and my first dates. They are on to bigger and more interesting fish," Leann said, "I liked Kira. She was sweet, in a punk rock goddess violent goth kind of way, but sweet."

Blake wandered in and without a word crawled under the covers of Hunter's bed and curled up still half asleep. "Bro?" Hunter asked.

"They wouldn't leave me alone until I promised to come," Blake said around a yawn.

"Don't you want to hear the story?" Marah asked with a little happy bounce.

"I don't have to hear the story," Blake muttered, "I caught them kissing."

"You kissed her on your first date!" Kapri asked, "Good job, Hunter. See, Marah, I told you he would be fine."

Hunter just dropped his head into his hands and listened to Leann laughing softly. "You know, you could have just gone over to Tori's and had a girl fest about this."

"No we couldn't," Marah replied, "we don't know Kira as well as we know you."

"And it is much more fun to torture you than it would be to bother Kira," Leann said.

"Not to mention, if we just show up at Tori's this early in the morning, she might not like it," Kapri continued.

"Why aren't you bothering Blake?" Hunter asked exasperated.

"Because he's sleeping right now," Marah said poking at the lump under the covers, "We get to bother him after we bother you."

"So, do you like her?" Marah asked.

"Yes."

"Are you going to ask her out again?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to give us monosyllabic answers to all our questions?" Leann asked amused.

Hunter glared at her before answering gruffly, "Yes." Kapri and Marah wailed in disappointment and Leann just laughed and moved to pour herself more coffee. "Fine, fine," Hunter said knowing that despite the fact that the girls could be annoying, they really were sweet and had his best interests at heart. "I picked her up at the Line Club just as she was finishing her act. We went to Clement's. I had the chicken and she had the lamb. We split a dessert. I took her to Donovan's for a little dancing and she was recognized by some of the people in the club and got up and did an impromptu number. I think the manager is trying to get her to gig there in a couple of weeks. We should all go. We went for a walk on the beach and I brought her back to Tori's. We had coffee on the deck and then Blake and I came home."

"But you kissed her?" Marah asked.

"Yes."

"Was it a deep passionate connection where you felt the earth move?" Marah asked.

Hunter thought for a minute then smiled, "No, it wasn't that kind of kiss. She is a nice girl and I like her. It's nice talking to someone and not having to hide that I teach at a secret ninja academy and was a power ranger. I think it was nice for her, too."

Kapri put down her cup of coffee slipping it slightly under the bed and crawled up to the headboard where she snuggled into Hunter's side. He automatically put an arm around her. For all her sarcastic comments and tough talk, Kapri craved physical affection, often snuggling up to her friends and relatives. "I'm glad that you like her."

"Yeah, me, too." Hunter said with an affectionate squeeze. "Aren't you and Marah going over to the Wind school today?" Sundays had been established as family day for the former rangers. Blake, Hunter and Grandma, Leann and her father would often spend the day together and the girls would go over to the Wind Academy to spend the day with Cam and his father. Shane, Dustin and Tori would spend time with their family.

"Not until Blake tells us about his date with Tori," Marah stated boldly poking at the lump that was Blake under the covers with a giggle.

"Nothing happened," Blake muttered, still not moving. "We walked to some Chinese place to pick up dinner, played some cards and then harassed Hunter when he brought Kira back from their date."

"And Tori fell asleep on him and he carried her to bed," Hunter said pushing at his brother's shoulder.

"Awwww," Marah and Kapri sighed.

"O.k., then, off you go," Leann said to the girls, "Go tell Cam all the gossip and have a nice day with your uncle and cousin. The boys and I have got some things to do with Grandma and Dad today."

The girls said their goodbyes and bounced out of Hunter's room. "What are we doing today?" Hunter asked Leann after the girls had left.

"There's some gardening that Grandma wants to do and Dad wants to go on some hike to get us in touch with the elements. We get to clean out the fountain and do a walk though of all the courses. You and I have student evaluations to do and I think Dad wanted to see how Blake's tutoring is progressing." Leann ticked off her fingers as she listed every item. "I think he also wants to look at the academy finances, but I told him to wait until Monday when Dustin comes." For all of Dustin's flakiness, somehow he managed to be completely competent when dealing with business and finance matters. It baffled the others to no end, but none of them commented as they all wanted an appreciated his help.

Hunter nodded absently. "I also want to change the schedule around a bit. With Dustin's earth teacher and with Blake here, I think we can loosen up the teaching rotation a bit and give some people some time off. I'm getting together with Shane on Monday over at the Wind academy."

"Not to mention, Kira will be there," Blake popped his head out from under the covers with a yawn, "Would you pour me a cup, Lee?" She obliged and dumped two heaping teaspoons of sugar and a large dollop of cream and stirred before handing the cup to Blake.

Hunter made a face, "I don't know how you can do that to good coffee."

"At the Blue, all the coffee was bad, you had to do anything you could to make it taste half way decent," Blake said with a grin, "So how much is Sensei going to beat on me?"

"Just an hour or so this afternoon," Leann said, "You know he holds Tori in pretty high regard, better not let him think she's slacking off with you."

Blake shot her a wry grin, "Training is all she's doing with me. God, Lee, what if I was gone too long?"

"Something you didn't tell us?" Leann asked. Blake had been spending quite a bit of time with Cam and her, most of the time talking about Tori. He complained that Hunter had no perspective, Cam knew Tori better, Leann was a girl and knew how girls think. Leann knew he was blowing smoke at them because Blake couldn't lie to her to save his life. Hunter was plotting. She didn't know why, or what he was planning, but the good thing was at this point Blake didn't know either, and now Leann had leverage in the form of Kira to use.

"Nah, not really. I mean I told her l loved her, you know, because I do, but I don't know if that she loves me the same way. I mean we have all always been really close, you know, but before, I was-" Blake broke off.

"A scared confused teenager trying to save the world with a bunch of friends," Leann said, "So was she and to put a relationship on top of that would have been nuts. I think both of you were smart enough to know that."

"Yeah, but I could have done something in the last five years."

"No, bro, you couldn't have, you would have been miserable and would have made her miserable," Hunter smiled, "I figured out how you won all the time, I really looked at our racing styles and watched you while you went pro. It's all about timing. Timing the start, timing the turns and the jumps. Now, you just got to shift that timing thing so that you and Tori work it out."

"If it helps anything, Cam thinks she loves you." Leann said coming to her feet and picking up the coffee tray, "His advice is to not act like your old self and screw it up."

"Hey," Blake protested.

"Go get dressed, boys, we've got work to do today."


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Tori smiled enjoying Kira's awe as she walked over the lake through the holographic portal to the Wind Ninja academy. They had woken early and picked up the guys before heading to the school for morning meditation. After she dropped them off, she and Cam would be streaking over the Thunder school and Hunter would head over to the Wind School. "Wow, what a place to train. Mostly we worked out in the woods behind Tommy's house." Tori smiled with pride as Kira looked out over the practice fields and cliffs the academy building and towards the ocean beyond.

"We're the biggest school on the West coast, although the Thunder academy has almost caught up with us, but that's mostly because we trade teachers and are able to teach more elements. Most schools teach only one or two. We have four elements plus the samurai program," Tori explained.

"Yeah," Shane put in having come up behind the girls, "The samurai program here and at the Thunder school is pretty small, but we get students whose parent's are ninja or ninja trained, but their kid just didn't have any strong element affinity. This way, their kids get trained and their parents feel like their families are continuing the legacy of being part of protecting the earth."

"Can I ask a question about that?" Kira asked as she was trying to take everything in as they walked across campus, the three teachers in their black ninja gear and Kira in a grey practice uniform that Tori had unearthed for her. "So I assume there was some traditional save the earth thing from back in the old Japan days, but what about now?"

"Well, besides the power ranger stuff, which even we didn't know about until there was truly someone trying to take over, lots of trained ninjas end up in law enforcement or military. They go into environmental studies to protect the earth or oceans and they open a whole bunch of martial arts schools," Tori replied.

"Yeah, there's this big network of what do you want to do and which ninja to contact," Dustin said with a grin. "I should like set up something to teach moto."

"Not quite the same as a dojo, but you get the idea, we mostly go out and try to make the world a better place," Shane said.

"And some of us stay to try and instill the teachings of making the world a better place into future generations," Watanabe Sensei said with a smile as the group approached him near the main training platform, "Welcome, Kira, to the Wind Ninja Academy. We are so pleased that you want to spend some time training with us."

Kira bowed politely, "Thank you for having me, Sensei."

"Is there a reason you are in grey?" Sensei asked.

"I, um, we usually just trained in street clothes, or work out clothes and Tori dug up this old practice uniform for me. She asked me about elements, but I kind of didn't know if I was attuned to one."

"And," Tori said with a grin, "I think she really wants a uniform with yellow trim, but I think she's going to end up in air and she's a bit conflicted about that."

"Why, what's wrong with red?" Hunter asked approaching the group.

"Nothing," Kira said with a bit of an embarrassed grin, "It's just Connor's color. And none of you can talk. We were the team called after you lost your powers and you still are all pretty color coded in your clothing choices."

Sensei laughed, "Yes, I will say that there are days that I look at the red trimmed uniforms with envy. If you feel grey is most appropriate, I will not gainsay you and if there is a particular affinity that you do have, you are most welcome to train with them dressed as you are."

"Air," Tori said in a sing-song voice.

"How do you know?" Dustin asked hoping that the other yellow ranger would test into earth just so she could get the uniform with the yellow trim that she wanted.

"She flew in a pterazord. Her super-dino mode had wings. She carried me through an aerial attack," Tori counted off her fingers.

"Bummer, Kira," Dustin said in a consoling tone, "you're an air."

"Hey, nothing is wrong with being an air affinity," Shane broke in, "It's not about the color of the trim on your uniform, you know."

Cam, who had wandered up during the discussion smiled and said scathingly, "And yet, when you didn't have a clean uniform, you wouldn't even think about wrapping yourself in a green towel to wait for the washer and dryer."

"Who has green towels, anyway?" Shane protested.

"And who only has red ones?" Tori asked.

Cam rolled his eyes and took Tori by the arm, "Good to see you again, Kira, if these guys give you any trouble, you have my permission to beat on them. Tori, we're going to be late."

Tori gave Kira one last wave and a streak of blue and green flew off into the sky. "Wow, how cool is that?"

"I can take you on a ride later, if you want," Hunter said.

"Or we could teach her the basics and she could try it out herself," Shane said.

"So, like, your date went well if you want to streak around with her, huh?" Dustin asked.

Sensei stifled a chuckle and Shane and Hunter groaned. Kira, however just smiled at Dustin and took him by the arm, "Yep. So where's this meditating that's supposed to be going on now happening? And Tori promised me breakfast after."

Shane snickered at Hunter, "There goes your date."

"Boys," Sensei admonished before smiling at them and moving to follow Dustin and Kira.

"Hey, Shane, can we look at the teaching rotation, I think I want to see if I can get Wednesday off," said Hunter and instead of going toward the meditation field, they walked off to the breakfast hall.

"What for?" Shane asked.

Hunter just grinned, "I have a date."

Tori smiled as she and Cam silently settled at the back of the field of meditating students. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath as she settled into a comfortable, familiar meditative state. As much as she loved the Wind school, over the past two years, the Thunder academy had become a haven of safety for her. When her life was spiraling downward and she found the attention and affection of her friends stifling, she retreated here, where Hunter was a patient rock and Leann and Omino Sensei were familiar, but non-intrusive. Sensei and Leann challenged her physically, training her in the style of thunder, although she really had no natural affinity for that element. Hunter loved her unconditionally, as a former ranger teammate and friend. She had found her center again at the Thunder academy and for that, she would always be grateful.

She felt a comfortable presence settle next to her. Omino Sensei's aura was a solid blue force, almost tangible, as he sat next to her and slipped into his own meditation. Tori adored her step-father, who recently married her mother and late in life found joy in spoiling a daughter. She relied on the support and wisdom of Watanabe Sensei, who had mentored the rangers through their teen years. However, Omino Sensei was the father of her heart. He challenged her physically through intense training sessions, mentally though imparting life wisdom and emotionally through his sheer capacity to accept and care for not only her, but for all his students.

A chime sounded and students and teachers started to come out of their meditation. There was the rustling of uniforms as students and teachers stood and shuffled away from the meditation field. Cam stood and laid a soft hand on Tori's shoulder before smiling at Leann and moving to meet her to head off to breakfast. Tori and Omino Sensei sat quietly until the field emptied and they were alone. She slowly opened her eyes and tilted her head from side to side breathing in the crisp mountain air.

"How are you today, Tori-chan?" Omino Sensei asked with an indulgent smile. Tori was much like his other children. Although not orphaned, like the others, she had a distinct lack of a father figure during her formative years. While Watanabe Sensei and later her step-father filled the gaping hole when her parents divorced, they had never been able to completely fill the void. Tori had learned to be independent and strong and it was a testimony to her friends and mother that she had not turned bitter.

"I'm fine, Sensei. Next week Tawnee will start teaching the beginning water classes. She is doing very well."

Omino Sensei nodded his head, Tori's little protégée student was a good choice. She was at the right level to start taking on more responsibility at the school. "You will have to speak with Hunter, but I am sure that will be fine. You will be coming here less frequently, then?"

"No, I still have to monitor Tawnee for a month or so. However, if Tawnee does well, I think I am going to talk to Hunter about teaching a private advanced element section with just a few students that I want to groom as teachers, if that works, in about a year or so you will have enough water teachers here to keep the program running," Tori said with a satisfied smile.

"Come," Omino Sensei said coming gracefully to his feet, "We must go in for breakfast." He waited until Tori stood and the two of them began walking across campus. "I had a training session with Blake, yesterday. His skills are returning quickly. I hear that I have you to thank."

Tori tilted her head to the side, "He asked if I would do some training with him. He really wasn't that rusty. All his basics were solid. It's just some of the advanced techniques that he had to practice."

"You reviewed thunder techniques with him. I even noticed that he used some of your tricks."

Tori grinned. Since she taught both at the Thunder and Wind schools, she had elected to learn the thunder style. She was disciplined in teaching only wind techniques at the wind school and thunder techniques at the thunder school. However, when fighting, Tori blended the two styles into something quite her own and often when doing her personal training, used that knowledge to her advantage. The boys said she cheated, but she would just grin and say that she needed any advantage that she could get.

She looked over to Omino Sensei and tried to gauge his mood. She knew that Omino Sensei observed her very closely, at first, she thought it was because of Blake, then, she thought it was because she was the only girl, then, after she started spending more and more time at the thunder school, she realized that he took her training in the way of the thunder ninja seriously and she began to look to him as she did Watanabe Sensei, as a teacher and guide. She had been pleased when Omino Sensei started referring to her as his second daughter.

She had worried that Hunter, Blake and Leann might be offended, but Hunter just laughed and teased her about being another stray like he and Blake. Leann just said she was grateful that Sensei had some other female child to worry about and maybe he would leave her alone. Comforted, Tori reveled in the warmth and acceptance that Omino Sensei and his adopted children gave her.

"I am wondering if you would be willing to take the final exam for thunder ninja and be the first to graduate from both Wind and Thunder schools," Omino Sensei offered.

Tori stopped short, "What?"

"I am wondering," Sensei repeated turning to face her, "if you would take the thunder ninja final exam."

"I thought Blake and Hunter," Tori said.

"They had a wind school graduation ceremony, but they received their ranks as thunder ninja. They trained with you, but the techniques they used were almost purely of the thunder style. No other schools are as close as our academies are. Most schools would never consider the exchange program we have, despite our obvious success. You are the only ninja to ever train so intensely in two styles. You have always respected our teachings, you have trained hard as a student and you have taught with remarkable understanding. The thunder academy would be honored to have you among their graduates."

"I don't know what to say. Sensei, you do me a great honor, but I have allegiance to the wind academy."

"And you have never dishonored that. I know that you shall not bring any dishonor to our school as well. I have informed Clarke, Bradley and Watanabe Sensei of the honor I extend to you, you may speak to them before making any decisions. Come, Tori," he said extending an arm and a smile to her, "Breakfast waits."

Tori hesitated before she walked up to Omino Sensei and took his arm. They continued their walk across the field towards the main building. As they entered the main school building, Tori said softly, "I will think about it."

"Good," Omino Sensei said patting her hand, "That is all I ask."

Hunter and Shane looked over the teaching rotation with critical eyes, "I like it," Shane said, "We get to make some changes in a month or so after the wind school graduation, but this will give us some extra time before that which I'm sure students who are looking for some additional one-on-one training will appreciate."

Hunter nodded in agreement. "Why do Tori's classes cut off here?"

"She has two teaching assistants graduating and one is signing on as a full time teacher and another part time. I'm going to have one more air teacher, but only part time and Dustin has some graduates, but no one interested in teaching. He does have three teaching assistants plus the one he's loaning for you in training, however."

"Good, maybe she can spend more time training for her own test."

Shane turned to look at Hunter, "Sensei asked her?"

"He's asking her today."

"Do you think she'll say yes?"

Hunter just shrugged. It was unheard of, for a ninja to be trained in two styles. The various academies were secretive and jealously guarded their techniques. If they hadn't been a power ranger team all those years ago, the thunder and wind school would have had no contact with each other after the release from Lothor's ship. What had happened in the aftermath of the release was a severe shortage of high level students and teachers. While it was fine in theory to train at a ninja academy to defend the earth, many people were extremely traumatized by their experience in captivity and being forced to rebuild their lives outside of the academy took precedence over continuing their ninja training. It was out of desperation that the wind and thunder academies came up with the joint teaching idea to save their schools and the legacy of defending the earth. As it was, only Tori and Dustin and now Dustin's student did any training with the thunder students and of the three, only Tori did so with any real intent.

"I think it would be a good thing," Hunter said, "She of all people deserves the honor."

Shane shrugged. Although he understood that Tori had needed distance from the wind academy and the "hovering guys" to get put together, he was still a little resentful that she had gone to Hunter and the thunder academy. He didn't want to admit that they had taken better of care of Tori than the wind academy. Tori would never say it, but she felt guilty that she hadn't been able to heal at the wind academy. Neither Shane, nor any of the others, would never tell her how hurt they had been when she had told them to back off, that Hunter, Leann and Omino Sensei were taking care of her.

"You o.k., man?" Hunter asked as Shane began tapping his pencil against the sheet of paper the schedule was written on.

"She's going to leave the schools," Shane said suddenly turning to Hunter with wild eyes, "Have you heard her talk lately? How she's set up the program here and that she has enough teachers to take over the water program from her. She talks about Tawnee over at your school and how she's ready to take over all the beginning classes and how she's thinking about an advanced instructor's course to accelerate the graduation of more teachers in her element."

"What?!" Hunter said shocked. Sure, Tori's program had the largest number of potential teachers, but Hunter had just chalked that up to careful planning on Tori's part and the talent of her students. He and Shane had sat with her lots of evenings reviewing how they could use her program to train teachers in all the respective elements.

Shane slumped, "Look at this, man," he waved the schedule listlessly in one hand, "In one year, all the wind school and thunder school water classes could be taught by instructors other than her."

"That doesn't mean she's leaving," Hunter argued.

"Yes, it does!"

Hunter gave an exasperated sigh, "Have you even asked her?"

"No, but she doesn't really talk to us anymore. It's all you and Blake, lately."

"Do you want me to ask?"

"No," Shane said with crossing his arms with a stubborn look, "she has to tell us herself."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "You have got to get over the fact that she didn't tell you about how she felt about the whole Blake thing!"

"She was hurt and she thought we wouldn't understand," Shane mocked with a snort.

"And you have to believe that she felt that way and work to get over that, not keep hounding her like she did something wrong," Hunter said slicing a hand through the air, "Has Tori ever lied to you?"

"No," Shane said affronted that Hunter would even ask that question. Tori couldn't lie to save her life, so she went out of her way to tell the truth and if those truths hurt, in the gentlest way possible. Hunter told her often that she was just too nice, the guys never really listened to her because she never flat out said something mean or hurtful, even if it was true, she would introduce the subject in a round about way or just not say anything. Hunter was all about calling a spade a spade. Tori just argued that's why he didn't have any friends.

"Then would you just listen to her and accept at face value that when she said she needed time away from here that she really meant it. It really wasn't about you or Dustin or Cam or Sensei. Remember when we lost our powers?" Hunter asked.

Shane nodded not saying anything, but listening, "Remember we all wanted to talk it out and we all chose Tori?"

Shane smiled, "Yeah, her place was like a revolving door. Her mom even asked me once if we all just wanted to move in. Had her step-dad all freaked out."

"So when Tori has a problem, is she supposed to come to all of us for answers? I mean, I didn't feel the need to talk to Cam and you and Dustin and Grandma. Just Tori, because she understood and didn't make you feel like an idiot."

"We wouldn't make her feel like an idiot," Shane huffed, annoyed.

"Dude, this is so girly. I can't believe I have to be all girly about this so you lay off Tori!" Hunter paced across Shane's office and back. "Look, I will tell this to you once. And if you ever tell anyone I told you this, I will totally deny it. I know why Tori ran away from you guys and I can't believe that you guys just don't get it. Here she is this big shot ninja and former power ranger and she let herself get kicked around by some asshole. She thought you guys wouldn't respect her or her abilities anymore. She thought that she wasn't good enough and that guy was all she could get. She thought that she had been hit worse by all of those monsters that Lothor sent down. Heck, even by us when we trained, so what was the difference? If this guy was beating on her, he wasn't beating on someone else who couldn't take it and didn't deserve it." Hunter ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"She told you this?" Shane asked quietly.

Deflated, Hunter sat in the chair across Shane's desk and dropped his head back in defeat, "No, Kapri told me."

Shane dropped his head to the top of his desk before lifting it and dropping it again with a dull thud. "Oh, God," he moaned.

"Dudes, what's up?" Dustin asked bouncing into the room, "You missed breakfast and classes are going to start in like ten minutes."

Shane turned to give Dustin a glare, "Do you know why Tori ran off to the Thunder Academy after she broke up with that guy that was hitting her?"

Dustin winced at the memory and Shane's accusing tone. He made a face of wry disgust, "Yeah, some junk about losing our respect and some self-image-esteem thing tied up in the guy that she was ok as a punching bag for because we beat her up all the time," Dustin trailed off with a look of confusion on his face. He shrugged, "Marah explained it to me. I didn't get it, but she was totally right. When I stopped hovering all the time, and stopped acting like Tori was some kicked puppy, things got better." He smiled brightly.

"So this whole thing doesn't bother you anymore? That she didn't come to us? She wouldn't talk to us?" Shane asked.

Dustin blinked, "She was totally talking to Cam. I asked Cam what was up with Tori and he told me just what Marah said, stop hovering and stop acting like she was going to break and that Tori would be alright. Dude, that was like two years ago."

"But she never spends any time over here, or with us! She's always off at the thunder academy or surfing or something. She's never at the skate park or at the track."

"Dude, she's like the busiest person I know," Dustin said, "So she doesn't spend time with us like she used to. I think you are just all freaked out because Blake is back." Dustin said, "And if we don't get out there, like yesterday, we are all going to be late and we are going to have to give ourselves the commitment to ninja training lecture."

"Go, start with some forms and we'll be out in a minute," Shane said shaking his head as Dustin trotted off. "I still think she's leaving."

Hunter just rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Shane, dude, do me a favor."

"What?"

"I want you to talk to Tori, really talk to her and really listen to her. Buddy, I know you haven't been as close to her as you used to be. Sometimes being the leader forces you to put some distance between you and the others. Maybe you and Tori need to work that out."

"Huh," Shane said, carefully thinking over Hunter's words. He and Hunter were very alike, they tended to think in the same way and their experiences both as rangers and as head instructors only emphasized that commonality.

"Let's go," Hunter said, "We're going to be really late. And I really don't want Dustin of all people to give us a lecture."

Shane laughed at that and slapped Hunter on the shoulder as they walked out the door. "So what's this date on Wednesday, anyway?"

Blake walked through the ranks of students as Leann and Omino Sensei led them through a form. Cam had already taken off with his morning Samurai class. He remembered when he was younger and there were twice as many students at the Thunder Academy, however he knew that excepting the wind academy, there were more students at just the Thunder academy than all of the others combined. The River and Forest school were struggling with just a handful of classes and although the Fire school was doing fairly well, they too had lost a number of their instructors after the Lothor affair and had to cut the number of incoming students to a fraction of what they used to admit. It had been a slow rebuilding process overall.

Blake had visited the other three American schools while he was touring with Factory Blue. While polite to the thunder ninja, the schools had not been willing to open communications regarding closer relationships with the thunder and wind academies or any other school. Blake had shrugged, reported back that he had tried and worried like all the others. Knowing that there were future teams of rangers to help defend the world was comforting, but he had been a ranger and he knew how hard it had been thinking that they were alone when all the academies were kidnapped. Not to mention the deep belief that one raised at a ninja academy had regarding tradition and service.

He watched the students with a critical eye. He had been teaching classes at both schools for a few weeks now and although the students were warming up to him, there was definitely a more formal distance. "Bradley Sensei, Hanson Sensei, the next form in the series, please." Omino Sensei called and Tori and Blake bowed before moving to the front of the class.

It was an advanced form full of complicated sequences and techniques that blended from one into the other. Kicks, punches, blocks and parries needed to be done precisely as not to lose balance or stop the flow of the form. Forms were a dance of difficult steps done by the body, freeing the mind. Blake looked at Tori and she nodded at him. They bowed and as if they had been practicing together all their lives, they moved through the exercise, each foot placed correctly, each move timed exactly. Advanced students who had treated Blake politely as a guest teacher suddenly took notice as they watched the demonstration. For the form to be done correctly was a challenge. To do it in tandem with another added levels of complexity. Tori and Blake executed every move, every stance, every turn with coordination and power, seemingly moving as one. The final move, the final explosion of air, and a polite bow ended the exercise and Blake could see the look of peace and joy on Tori's face. He could feel his lips, like hers, curled in a half smile.

"Very nice," Sensei intoned with a nod of his head and a smile for his two students, "Omino Sensei, Bradley Sensei, take the class through the form. Hanson Sensei, take your water students."

The three instructors bowed the master and Tori's students quickly formed up behind her, preparing to head to the lake where they most often practiced their water techniques. They streaked off in blurs of blue light and Blake and Leann were left to work with the students.

"Was that your attempt at matchmaking?" Grandma Bradley asked Omino Sensei as he approached the pagoda where she sat knitting.

"Meddlesome," Omino Sensei called the older woman before taking a seat. "I am trying to emphasize to the children how well matched they are."

Grandma laughed softly and handed Omino Sensei a bottle of water. "Leave them alone. I'm sure Blake will figure it out."

"He hasn't been able to figure it out in six years."

"Angling for a daughter-in-law?"

"Grandchildren," was the gruff response and once again Grandma Bradley broke out into laughter.

Tori dismissed the advanced water class with a smile. They were coming along very well. The latest exercise she gave them was to pull water out of the air and while some students were still having difficulty with the exercise, she was sure that they all understood the concept, if they couldn't actually do it in practice. She knew how hard this was.

For a water ninja, the first lesson learned was basic control and manipulation of water. Once control became second nature, more advanced manipulations, then being able to use the element under various stresses, walking on water while being attacked, using water as hand holds and foot holds while climbing. Then came what some called creation of water, being able to call water to the ninja from seemingly nowhere. In reality, the technique was the ability to pull the water from everywhere, from the air, plants, even the earth. It took intense concentration and precise control. When she had first tried, all she managed was to make the water molecules in the air shimmer. Most of the students were past that stage, being able to draw actual drops of water from the air or able to produce a fine mist.

It had taken months to get even a palm full of water. Then, Watanabe Sensei wanted her to be able to pull the water into a sphere, to create a wall of mist and to hang droplets of water on the leaves of a tree. He had asked her to consider an intensive training course under a ninja water master that lived in Seattle. She was considering that and was trying to arrange both schools so that she could leave for a six month sabbatical. Now, Omino Sensei had asked her to take the thunder ninja exam. She could probably pass it now, but to do so at an instructor level would take at least another year of training. Tori already had plans.

She sat at the edge of the water and idly tossed pebbles into the lake watching the ripples intersect with the flowing water and carried downstream. She bit her bottom lip as she often did when she was thinking and sighed. Half an hour later, Blake found her still sitting there.

"Tori?" he said coming up behind her, "Cam was looking for you. He wanted to know when you were going to be ready to head back to the Wind School?"

Tori looked up at him startled then pulled out the small watch that she kept in a pocket and noticed that it was almost 4:30. "Shoot, I have to get back to Kira."

"Hey, relax, we're all going over to have dinner in town at Mario's, so there's no hurry if you have something to do here. Cam was just wondering where you were since all your students came back awhile ago and you didn't. Everything o.k.?"

"Yeah, just thinking," she absently picked up a stone before throwing it in the water. She stood, brushing the dirt off her pants. She allowed Blake to take her hand as they started to walk back to the main academy grounds.

"We need to work on the next set of forms," Blake said with a squeeze to Tori's hand, "I think Omino Sensei wants us to teach the advanced course the form we did today and the next two in the series."

"Teach?" Tori asked a little bit alarmed. She never taught the thunder classes, she was there to be a student. When teaching the water element classes, she related the exercises to the thunder style because she thought that was most respectful. Dustin had followed her example and took a number of thunder classes, but Shane worked only to teach element and not to integrate the air element too much with the martial art. He relied on Hunter and Omino Sensei to help bridge that gap with his air students. "I only teach the water element classes."

"Hunter and Shane changed the schedule around a bit. He has you and me teaching an advanced thunder class later this week, so I wanted to review the forms with you. Tor, it's not like you don't know how to teach, and you teach classes here all the time."

"Element classes, not thunder classes," Tori replied, "Are you sure that's what the schedule says? I wonder if they messed up somewhere."

"One would think you don't want to teach with me," Blake said dryly.

Tori blinked at him startled at his tone. "No, it's not that, not that at all," she backpedaled, thinking that she might have offended him.

Blake shot her a smug grin and she narrowed her eyes before slugging shoulder with her free arm. "Ow."

Tori just gave him an exasperated look. "None of us teach the thunder classes except for the thunder ninja graduates, you and Hunter. I thought you graduated wind, but Sensei explained that you had received thunder certification, not wind certification. I'm not a thunder ninja."

"Tori, you may not think of yourself as a thunder ninja, but I bet there are a whole bunch of people including Sensei who think you more than deserve the title. Not only because you teach here. Shane teaches here, too, but he doesn't train here. You are an integral part of the school both as a teacher and a student. I think the school heads are giving you a change of status, from just a thunder student to a thunder assistant instructor," Blake said reasonably.

Tori bit her bottom lip. She stopped and pulled out her cell phone and called Cam, "Cam? Yeah, I'm fine. Look, um, Blake and I have to talk about something. Can we take a rain check? Yeah, I'm sure Hunter will have no problems taking Kira home. Leann told you about them kissing on my front porch?" Tori giggled, "Thanks, Cam. Tell Leann thanks, too. Bye."

"We're not going to dinner?" Blake asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not with the gang, I mean you can go if you want, I guess, but I thought maybe we could talk?"

Blake smiled, "Hey, I get you alone, you want to talk to me. It's all good, Tor."

"I'll even feed you," Tori said with a smile, "there's the sushi place that Sensei likes to go to."

"Lead the way." Blake said.

They had settled at a table at the small Japanese restaurant near the base of the mountain that the thunder academy was built on. "Hanson Sensei, Bradley Sensei," they were greeted with a polite bow.

"Hi, Kimiko," Tori said, she looked at Blake, "Sushi?"

Blake nodded and Tori handed over their menus. "Tea, please and whatever the chef feels like tonight." Their waitress smiled, bowed and moved away.

"So what's up?" Blake asked.

"Omino Sensei talked to me today," Tori said.

"About?"

"He asked me to consider taking the thunder ninja exams."

Blake's brows winged up. "See, then you'd be a full fledged wind and thunder ninja and be qualified to teach both. I didn't think the assignment was a mistake." They were served their tea and Blake watched Tori take a cautious sip. "So what's the problem?"

Tori looked at Blake with a sad smile on her face, "I've been getting ready to leave."

Blake blinked and a shocked look came over his face, "Leave? You're going to leave? Leave the school? What?"

Tori circled her hands around the tea cup, relishing the warmth. Her eyes stared at the green liquid as if the answers to all her questions lay there as she sat quietly for a moment. She took a deep breath. "About six months ago, Watanabe Sensei talked to me about continuing my water training. There is no water master at the wind school anymore. Watanabe Sensei was an air ninja and although he is retired, there is an earth ninja master nearby who is training Dustin. There are only thunder ninjas at your school.

"A friend of his is willing to train me at the river school up in Washington. So, I've been trying for the past six months to get both schools to a point where they had enough water teachers so I could go up to Washington to train." She was quiet as Kimiko served the first two courses and smiled as her tea cup was filled. "In a month, the wind school will have two new instructors and I was going to spend the two months after that accelerating three thunder students to take over the water courses under the direction of one of the wind school instructors."

"Do Shane and Hunter know?" Blake asked.

Tori shrugged picking up her chopsticks, "They know about the change in my schedule over the next two months, but after that, no."

"Have you talked to anyone about this?" Blake asked.

Tori looked up at him and shook her head, "You're the first to know."

They ate in silence for a few moments. As Blake tried to order his thoughts and Tori struggled with hers. Kimiko brought another course before Blake ventured with a sad smile, "I would miss you. I would hate to see you go."

"You visited the river school, right? How was it?" Tori said in an effort to change the subject.

Blake watched Tori as she started intently at her food, he sighed before saying, "It was beautiful. The grounds are where a small waterfall empties into a river that feeds into a larger river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. You can smell the salt air from just a couple of miles down the river. There are pine trees everywhere and the mist in the morning is so thick that you can barely see the person next to you during morning meditation. Hayashi Sensei clears the mist over the grounds so classes can begin. The river style is softer than the wind and thunder styles. I guess it developed in an area that was more into Aikido than Karate. You would like it. The way they moved, it was like dancing.

Hayashi Sensei was very nice. He was far more welcoming that the forest and fire schools were. Probably because he knows Watanabe Sensei," Blake guessed with a shrug. "His school was run very traditionally, stricter than Omino Sensei, even. The students seemed very dedicated and focused. I worked out there with them for a week."

"You liked it there?"

"You wouldn't be able to surf much, too cold," Blake said.

"It would only be for a couple of years."

"And what if you liked it so much you stayed up there?" Blake asked.

"That's not the plan. Not my plan, anyway. I don't think Watanabe Sensei would say anything if I chose to stay up there, but the plan is to get a master rating and come back to the wind school."

"What about the thunder school?"

Tori blinked. "If they still needed me. They might not by then, and then if anyone wanted further training, I would be in the area or they, too, could go up to Washington."

Blake signaled Kimiko for the check and smoothly passed her his credit card. "I said I'd take care of it," Tori said, but a glare from Blake had her watching him quietly. He smiled at Kimiko and they left the restaurant.

They found an empty alley, "Your place," Blake said before he streaked away. Tori ran a hand through her hair. Something was wrong. She did something or said something wrong. She sighed and closed her eyes, focusing herself before taking of in a streak of light. She landed on her back porch and wasn't surprised to see Blake sitting on the stairs looking out over the ocean. Without saying a word, she opened the back door and Blake stood to follow her inside.

He took her hand and drew her to the sofa where they sat sideways, facing each other quiet, until Tori spoke, "I did something wrong, what did I do wrong, Blake?"

"Why would you think you did something wrong?" Blake asked.

"I don't know. You stopped talking to me. You wanted to get out of a public place. You," Tori stopped and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I thought I was over this."

"God, Tori," Blake said gently reaching out and smoothing a tendril a hair behind her ear. He knew she wanted to flinch, but was holding herself still with iron control. "You know, this is something else you and I are going to talk about when you are ready." Startled blue eyes opened to meet his. "Hunter gave me a reader's digest version. Don't be mad. He was worried about you. But I want to talk about you going, if that's what you want to do."

"Its part of the reason Shane doesn't train with the thunders. Not only is he head instructor over at the wind school, but he's already started his master element training with Sensei. That takes up lots of his time and he didn't want the distraction of learning a new style. Dustin's teacher is really easy going and really encourages Dustin to do and try different things thinking they all will help make him a better earth master. He can do some amazing things, now. I focused my training in the thunder style because I had the most free time, I wasn't training intensely in my element like the other two, and because I wanted to be able to teach the thunder students in a style consistent with their own. I had the time and I really enjoyed it.

"I had things all planned out. Two or three months and I would have been gone. I was going to contact Hayashi Sensei next week. Now I don't know what to do."

"Well, let's slow down and talk about it."

Tori took a deep breath before looking up at Blake, "I need to train in my element. Watanabe Sensei can continue to train me, but I can never receive a master rating from him. If I want that, I have to train under a master and Sensei has arranged so I can."

"Is it really important to you?" Blake asked.

"Yes. I can't give all that my students deserve if I don't have a master rating, I can't give back to the wind and thunder schools my best. I really don't want the water program to fall behind because I didn't do my all to become a water master. I can totally do it and I want to do it."

"But it doesn't come free. You would have to leave, your friends, the schools," Blake stopped, biting his lip. The word "me" echoed in his head, unsaid.

"Temporarily," Tori argued, "And you are one to talk, you went away to ride. Five years, Blake. You left to find your dream."

"Maybe I didn't find it out there," he replied.

"You can't tell me that you didn't enjoy riding with Factory Blue. If you didn't like it, you wouldn't have done it for five years. I know that you had two contract renewals, Blake, that was a choice to stay and do what you love doing. Maybe this is my chance to go and do what I love doing."

"You do what you love here. What about taking the thunder test?"

Tori shrugged and gave Blake a half smile, "That was completely unexpected. I still don't even know what to think about that, but the test isn't for six months and I might not even be ready then. That would push everything back."

"What about me?"

"I don't know," Tori said and Blake watched her try to smile as she blinked rapidly trying to hold back tears, "It's not something I needed right now. For you to be home, to tell me you love me. To do everything in your power for the last few weeks to make me remember how it used to be. Because it's not that anymore, but it doesn't stop me from wanting it to be like I dreamed when I was eighteen."

"Oh, Tori," Blake shifted around on the sofa and managed to pull Tori so she was snuggled up against him with her head on his shoulder. He rocked her softly as she sniffled. "I'm so sorry. I'm making this harder for you, aren't I?"

Tori snorted, "Oh, yeah, like our lives were so easy when we were running around in spandex fighting aliens."

Blake chuckled and ran his fingers through her soft hair and closed his eyes, "I want to support you in whatever you decide to do, Tori, even if it means being separated from you again. Yeah, I guess this feels like eighteen all over, huh? Is that the reason you've been holding back from getting involved with me?"

"Part of it, I guess. I mean there's other stuff, but how would it be to get together when in a few months I was planning on going," Tori said sadly as she played with a button on Blake's denim jacket. "I don't want to leave you like-"

"Like I left you, with the hopes and the dreams and wondering if finally we would get it right," Blake said softly.

Tori pulled back and Blake let her go. "I don't know what I'm going to do, yet. You're the first person I've even told. I guess I have to go and think about even more stuff, now."

"Tor," Blake said looking at her intently. He waited for her eyes to meet his, "Look, I came home knowing that I wanted to be with you. I know I surprised you and I totally understand that you had plans for your life and they didn't include me. I would be lying if I said I don't want you to think about me, about us, while you are trying to figure this out. It's selfish, but I don't want to lose you when I think that you and I could have something really good. I do want you to know that I will try and figure something out, whatever you decide. I don't want to pressure you. So you let me know what you want to do and how you want to do it and I will stand right by you all the way."

Tori gave him a shaky smile and shook her head and asked in a whisper, "Why? Why would you even think that I'd be worth all of that?"

Blake moved forward and took her face between his hands. "Tori Hanson, you are worth so much more. I walked away, and maybe I had to back then, maybe we had to grow up, but I know what I want and I think it's worth fighting for. I left you, so it's only right that now that I've come back, I work to try and fit into your life, whatever you decide."

"And if it doesn't include you?"

"Then I have four guys saying 'I told you so' and I get to kick myself over letting you get away."

Tori smiled and Blake smiled back. He leaned in slightly and when Tori didn't pull away, he moved in closer. He saw her eyes flutter closed just before he brushed her lips with his. It was soft and brief and when Blake pulled back, he watched her eyes open. "I love you," she whispered.

Blake stroked her hair and pulled her into his arms. "I know."

Shane Clarke was on a mission. He had grabbed Dustin as soon as his class was over and the two of them were stalking over to the waterfall where Tori usually started and ended her element classes. Well, Shane was stalking, anyway. Dustin was just following along with a serious expression on his face, mostly mimicking Shane. He knew when Shane got serious and glowery, something was happening, but since he didn't know what, and Shane had not given him an explanation, he figured trying to be happy and jostle Shane out of him mood would just annoy him more. Also, looking as serious as they both did, students tended to ignore them instead of stopping them to ask for questions. Dustin thought that if he got distracted by someone, Shane would just stalk off without him and Shane must need him, even though he had not said why.

They stopped at the clearing and saw that although Tori's formal class was finished, a number of students were hanging around to watch Tori and Blake train. They were practicing an interactive form that Shane did not recognize and that too brought a frown to his face, especially when Tori missed a block and was hit in the face by a ridge hand from Blake. "Matte!" Shane called, rushing into the area and hurrying over to see if Tori was hurt as he glowered at Blake.

"Shane?" Tori said blinking at him as he cradled her head in his hands and was tilting it around as he examined the area Blake had struck. "I'm fine, Shane, when I missed the block Blake pulled the hit."

"It didn't look like it," Shane growled.

Tori rolled her eyes and started batting at Shane's hands so he would let her go. "Shane, stop it." When he freed her and stepped back, Tori gave Blake an apologetic smile, "I'm fine. I'm sorry I missed the block. I keep thinking the next hit is going to come from the right, I don't know why."

"Don't worry about it," Blake said coming up and running fingers over her temple where he struck her, "We just need to slow down and keep practicing that section until that block comes up automatically." He bent over and gently kissed her temple ignoring the wide eyed stares of Dustin and Shane and Tori's curious water students.

"Woah, when did that happen?" Dustin asked with a wide grin on his face, "Is that why you two weren't at dinner last night?"

"Dustin, do us a favor," Shane said with the same intensely serious look on his face, "Will you work out with Blake tonight, I have something that I have to talk to Tori about and it's about time he starts working out with another element power if he really wants to get himself back in shape. And not a word out of you, missy," Shane said with a quick look to Tori.

Tori looked over to Dustin, perplexed by Shane's attitude and action, but Dustin just shrugged and punched Blake on the arm. "Yeah, I haven't gotten the chance to spar with you, yet. Tori's been hogging all your time."

Blake threw a questioning look at Tori, but she just shrugged. Blake turned to Dustin, "Just remember, whatever beating you give me now, I'm giving you back double on the track."

Dustin laughed good-naturedly and Shane took Tori by the arm and pulled her into a streak. They didn't go far, and if Tori hadn't trusted Shane as much as she did, she might have been angry, but Shane was rarely high handed in his actions and almost never with her. She knew something was up and that it was serious. So when they landed near the start of the air course and Shane started walking through the wooded trail, Tori followed silently, knowing that when Shane was ready, they would talk. They came to a clearing where a large pine tree had fallen a long time ago and Shane hauled himself to the top of the trunk and extended a hand to help Tori up. She quickly grabbed it and let him help her to the top of the worn log. She arranged herself comfortably and waited for Shane to speak.

"Were you going to tell us that you were leaving?"

Tori looked at Shane startled. She opened and closed her mouth several times as she started to speak, then stopped, not knowing what to say. Finally, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Watanabe Sensei knows the Master over at the River Academy in Washington. He's offered to take me on as a student, so that I can get my master rating. I guess you figured out what I was doing, huh?"

She opened her eyes to meet Shane's serious ones, "When?"

"I was planning for three months from now. The two instructors here will be fine, and you and Hunter have the whole instructor preparation thing going forward. I need a little more time with the water instructors over at the thunder academy and I was looking at three months," Tori said.

"So, were you going to tell us?"

"Shane," Tori said a little bit hurt by the tone in his voice, "Of course I was going to tell you before I did anything, especially something as big as this. I would have to be gone for two years. I wouldn't leave the school in the lurch."

"I'm not talking about the school, Tor. I'm talking about us, about your friends."

"How could you even think that? Of course I would tell you as my friends."

"It doesn't seem like it, you never talk to us, anymore, Tori. You are here and you go through the motions of teaching and surfing and I don't know anything about you anymore. I know you are over at the thunder school all the time. When you are on campus, you just attend the formal stuff. When you are around us, you never talk about you, what you are doing, who you spend time with, cause it sure isn't us. And now Blake is kissing you in public? When did that happen and he comes home to be with you and you are talking about leaving? What is that?"

"You are jealous," Tori stated in amazement.

"What? No, I'm not," Shane protested.

"Shane, you aren't our red ranger anymore. It's not your responsibility to make sure our lives are on some destined path. You don't need to know what is going on in our lives and we don't have to tell you anymore because back then, it was important that you knew. Our lives depended on you knowing how we felt and if we were injured or depressed. Now you still want regular updates and I've been pushing you away. I'm sorry."

"Oh, God, now you are going to make me feel bad," Shane said on a moan.

"Haven't you learned by now that it's always a no win situation when it comes to dealing with girls?" Tori asked sweetly.

"So, are you going to tell me what's up? Me, friend Shane, not Red Ranger Shane or Head Instructor Shane?"

Tori smiled, "Friend Shane is the one I need now. I was going to talk to you this week anyway. Well, all of you, actually, but you first, because you are the guy with the multiple hats. So basically, a couple of years ago, Watanabe Sensei asked me if I wanted to get a master's rating in my element. He could teach you and Dustin goes to Carpenter Sensei, but there is no water master here anymore since Jonas Sensei moved away."

Shane remembered the older water master who had moved to live with his daughter and grandchildren. He had been captured like the others and his wife had passed away during his absence. It had been a very difficult return for him and he decided that he could not live in Blue Bay anymore. "So Sensei talked to the river academy?"

"Yes, but I couldn't leave just then. We had just started working on the thunder program and while we were doing o.k. here, the instructors were still just getting to the point where they could be independent. So I asked for two years so I could get the thunder academy program up and running. So, pretty much now."

"You going to go?"

"I want to."

Shane tilted his head to the side and noticed that Tori was avoiding looking at him, "So what's holding you back?"

"You know Omino Sensei asked me to test as a thunder ninja." Shane nodded and Tori continued, "I've never lived away from Blue Bay. All my friends are here, my life is here. I'm excited about the training, and I feel like if I go, I can bring so much back to the wind school and the thunder school. If I don't take this opportunity, it might not happen again."

"I was offered a full scholarship to college at Turtle Bay University," Shane said softly, "Mom and Dad were pushing me to at least apply to colleges, but I knew that what I really wanted to do was teach and run the school here."

"You never said anything," Tori said.

"Yeah, well, I got the acceptance letter and all of a sudden, there was this totally new option open to me. Do you know what I did?"

"What?"

"I took everyone else out of the equation. I looked at me, just at me and what I wanted and I wanted to teach, I wanted to run the school," Shane gave a self-depreciating laugh, "My parents hit the ceiling. Porter had to come by to calm them down. Then he kind of turned on me, like old times, and I just stood there and said, 'Dude, do you know how much I gave up to save the world? This is for me. This is what I want to do. I had to think of the whole population of the planet before me when I was a ranger, my friends, my family, my team. Now, I get to do something for me and this is what I want to do.' You haven't done that, Tor. You haven't stood on your own and said 'me first.'"

"This is about me, what I want," Tori started, but Shane cut her off.

"Nuh-uh. Do you know when you talk about leaving, yeah, you talk about your training, but the next words out of you mouth are the wind and thunder academy and that means all you friends and those you consider your family and the students and the whole world saving thing. I don't want you to think about the schools. I don't want you to think about us. I don't want you to think about Omino Sensei or Watanabe Sensei, or Blake." Shane saw Tori flinch and he gentled his tone, taking her hand, "Just you, Tor. What do you want?"

"But I can't do everything. I can't be sure that if I make a choice now, that all the other options will be there waiting for me later on."

Shane laughed, "Of course you can't. Just like when you chose water, earth or air, sometimes that's how it is."

Tori wrinkled her nose, "Fix it."

Shane grinned at her now. "Come on, I'll buy you dinner." He stood up and offered a hand to her. Tori took it and she allowed Shane to pull her into a hug.

"Thanks Shane," she said quietly. "I don't think when we were rangers that we said that enough to you. You were the one who always kept us on the straight and narrow, you know. You sacrificed more than any of us, because you also sacrificed for us and I don't think I ever told you how much that mattered. You weren't only the strongest and the best ninja, you were the best leader."

"Thanks, Tor," Shane said as he squeezed her one last time before letting go. Shane pulled away and jumped off the log. "You know I'm going to want something in exchange for having to be all girly with you and stuff."

"Really?" Tori asked as she started to follow Shane back to the main part of campus.

"Yeah, so, about this Blake thing . . ."

Hunter showed up at Tori's apartment at nine in the morning. When he had called Tori to ask if Kira could borrow the bike on Wednesday, Tori cheerfully agreed and had Dustin go over to tune the bike up. Hunter knocked on the door and Kira opened it with a smile. "Hey, come on in. Dustin brought over some of his old gear, but I still need to adjust some of it. Tori left breakfast in the oven."

As Kira turned to go back to the bedroom, Hunter grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms, "Good morning," he murmured before kissing her lightly. He smiled when he felt Kira lean up to him and their second kiss of the morning lasted quite a bit longer than the first. Kira pulled back and bit her bottom lip, a light flush of pink stole across her cheeks.

"Yeah, o.k.," she said a little breathlessly and wiggled out of his arms, "why don't you pull breakfast out. I'll be ready in a second." With one last shy grin, she turned and practically ran down the hallway.

"Deep passionate connection with moving earth, check," Hunter said to himself as he moved to the kitchen. Tori's small table was set for two and there was a note on the fridge for him in Tori's handwriting. He pulled the note down wondering if Kira had seen it. He smiled as he read. "Made apple pan fluff. Have fun today. Bring her back in one piece or else. Love, Tori."

Kira came back into the room having pulled her hair back into some elaborate braid with just a few curling tendrils falling around her face. She had an armload of yellow gear which she left by the door. "Are we hitting the track or just riding on the road?" Kira asked.

"Just the road," Hunter said as he pulled out the skillet of buttered bread pudding with apples cooked in cinnamon and sugar. "Tori must really like you. She doesn't just make this for anyone."

Kira gave him a wry smile, "I think they are matchmaking." She walked to the table pouring a cup of coffee for her and Hunter before sitting down.

"They?" Hunter asked.

"She was extremely tickled about us going riding today and practically threatened Dustin to get him over to check on the bike. Dustin just seemed confused saying that he would have come over anyway. Tori started going off about how everything had to be perfect, and Dustin nodded and said apple pan fluff. He called Shane and had him buy the stuff and they took off to pick up some of Dustin's old gear, so I could at least be in color. It was all a little strange."

Hunter had taken his first bite of his breakfast and closed his eyes, savoring the breakfast treat. After he finished the bite, he smiled at Kira, "Never under estimate the power of apple pan fluff. Tori only makes it on special occasions. We had it on the morning that we beat Lothor. It was the first day of the Nationals and Shane, Dustin and Blake were competing. The competition got thrashed, but beating Lothor made up for it. After that, whenever any of us has something big going on, it's all about the apple pan fluff."

Kira laughed shaking her head, "So, matchmaking?"

Hunter rolled his eyes, "Definitely matchmaking. But me, I'm not complaining if I get more pan fluff than the other guys. For awhile, they were making up all sorts of things just to get Tori to make it, like Dustin had to change out the engine of his bike, or Cam was house hunting."

"What was your excuse?" Kira asked amused.

"Apparently, all I need to do is have a date with a pretty girl," he said with a smile as he watched Kira take her first bite of breakfast and watched her eyes widen in surprise at the taste exploding over her tongue.

"Wow, I have got to get the recipe for this," she said intently taking another bite.

Hunter laughed lightly and said, "Good luck. Tori says it's her great-grandmother from Sweden's recipe and won't give it away. Not that any of us can really cook, including Leann, Marah and Kapri."

"Neither can the guys, well, except for Trent, but that's because I got Dr. Mercer's chef to give me lessons. Trent and I were dating then," Kira said with a shrug while she took another bite of breakfast. "Maybe I can get it out of her if I made it a ranger thing. You know, we need all the luck we can get when we save the world."

"It's not like we are on the world saving patrol anymore," Hunter replied.

"You never know," Kira said loftily as she showed Hunter her wrist, "Look, Cam gave me a communicator." A little yellow stripe with some lights was on the underside of her morphing bracelet.

"So you are on the alert list. Handy if you are going to be going between here and Reefside," Hunter said.

"People keep asking me to gig. I could almost fill a schedule here. My parents are going to have a fit, but I think if I can transfer to Blue Bay College and get a couple of other places to let me play in the evenings, I might be able to make it here," Kira said with a smile.

"Move here?" Hunter asked and he noted that Kira blushed and ducked her head.

"Yeah. I like it here."

"That's good."

There was a small awkward silence before Hunter continued quietly, "So, if you stay, would you consider possibly having a relationship? With me?"

Kira looked at Hunter and tossed her head sassily, "Is that what this is? A relationship?"

"If you want it to be."

Kira looked at Hunter steadily as he watched her. Finally, she nodded, "Yes."

Hunter's lips twitched, "Good."

"Alright, then," Kira said turning back to her breakfast. "How long are we going to be out today?"

"Just this morning, I think. We can see how you feel after a couple of hours and then we can hang out or go look at the Blue Bay College campus or anything else you want to do," Hunter offered as he cleared up the table, took his dishes to the sink and began to rinse and load the dishwasher.

"You seem pretty comfortable here," Kira said curiously as she brought her own dishes to the sink and Hunter began to rinse them.

"Yeah, Tori and I got pretty close after Blake left and when she needed someone to hang out with after a pretty rough patch. The guys, you know, they knew her forever, since she was little and that was hard for her. So, Marah, Kapri, Leann and I started spending more time with her. It was easy, she was training at the Thunder school already," Hunter shrugged and said, "But we all have a key for here and for Cam's place."

"Yeah, thank heaven's I live with my mom and so the guys couldn't just barge in at any time. Dr. O and Dr. Mercer were more lenient and we were over there at all times of day or night. Lucky that Dr. M has a huge house and set up a 'kids area' for us," Kira smiled at the thought of the suite of rooms in the huge house that Dr. Mercer and Trent lived in.

"I miss Ninja Ops, sometimes," Hunter said as he finished with the dishes and wrapped his arms loosely around Kira's waist pulling her closer to him.

"Upon many occasion Dr. O would kick us out of the Dino Cave with the admonition of 'don't you have homes to go to?" Kira smiled settling against Hunter as he leaned against Tori's kitchen counter.

"You know, I may just monopolize any free time that you might have," Hunter said as he feathered a kiss over her temple.

"I'm sure I won't mind and once you teach me to streak, maybe I'll be taking up some of your time at the academy," she said slipping her arms around Hunter for a quick hug, "But now," she said with a gleam in her eye, "I want to ride." She pulled out of his grasp and towards the front door where she slipped on a black riding jacket accented in yellow and grabbed a pair of gloves and a helmet.

"You all set?" Hunter asked following her out the front door.

"Dustin checked the gear for fit yesterday. And as I kept reminding all of them, we had our raptor cycles and I'm pretty sure this bike isn't going to be as crazy as that one was," Kira said with a smile.

"Yeah, Cam took off most of the really crazy stuff, like the nitrogen boosters and radar systems. It's street legal, but just barely, if we get pulled over, we have to do some pretty fast talking and hope the cop has no idea about bikes," Hunter said with a grin.

"You're kidding, right?" Kira asked as Hunter locked the door and moved towards the garage that housed Tori's van and bike. Hunter just grinned at her and straddled his own bike as he waited as Kira got out Tori's bike and went over the controls and checked the bike before stepping on herself. Hunter nodded, pleased with her caution and put on his helmet.

"Can you hear me?" Hunter asked and was pleased when Kira with a jolt of surprise looked over at Hunter from inside Dustin's helmet.

"Oh, how cool," Kira said and Hunter could hear a smile in her voice.

"Cam hooked up all our helmets with wireless," Hunter said as he started his bike and watched as Kira did the same, "Ready?"

"When you are," Kira said as she followed him out of Tori's driveway and onto the street.

Tori had a very busy month. She had spoken to all the rangers, Kira and the Senseis. Tonight, all the instructors from the wind and thunder academies plus Marah, Kapri and Grandma Bradley were at the beach house. Blake and Tori were acting as host and hostess with Kira and Hunter backing them up. The sun was just setting as Tori and Blake gathered everyone on the deck.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight," Tori said with a smile at the crowd gathered around her, "I have an announcement to make." Whispered speculations ran through the crowd of ninja instructors and Tori bit her bottom lip nervously, "I have been teaching with you all at the wind academy for the past five years and at the thunder academy training and teaching for the past three. All of you have played a huge role in my life these past few years and I wanted to thank you for the support you all have given me.

"I'd like to give a special thanks to the water ninja instructors at the wind school and congratulate the water instructor candidates at the thunder school. You have helped me grow as an instructor and as a person. I could not do what I'm about to do without you.

"In six weeks, after the thunder school final examinations, I will be moving to Washington." Ripples of shock ran trough the crowd that Tori had not yet spoken to. "I have been invited to train with a water master at the River academy. The training will last approximately two to three years. I won't be gone completely, I will still be back for holidays and vacations, and will definitely spend time at the schools when I am around."

"What about Blake?" a thunder ninja student asked and other's muttered in confusion.

Tori smiled and blushed, although they were not overly demonstrative, most of the schools knew that they were dating. "Um, well, honestly . . ."

Shane broke in with a grin, "What Tori's trying to say is it's none of anyone's business." Tori threw Shane a grateful smile.

Blake walked up to Tori and took her hand. "I'll tell you what I'm doing," he said with a smile just for Tori, "I'm going with her."

Tori blinked in surprise, her mouth fell open, "What?" she asked baffled by Blake's statement.

Omino Sensei walked up and put his hands on Tori and Blake's shoulders, "I would like to say, that I am very proud of these two ninja. When Hunter and Shane approached me about opening the thunder academy to water, air and earth ninja as well as starting a samurai program, I was resistant to the idea. It had merit, but everyone knew that the wind school was 'progressive'." The word was said with rueful distaste, while Watanabe Sensei just smiled. "It has been difficult to rebuild the number of students that our schools once had and the radical idea of the thunder academy teaching other elements was shocking, to say the least.

"However, in this day and age, we know that we have a duty to assist in protecting the earth and providing the means for our traditions to be passed on to future generations. Hayashi Sensei has decided that what the wind and thunder schools have modeled is the way of the future has offered Bradley Sensei a teaching position at the River Ninja Academy. He has accepted."

"Blake," Tori breathed.

"I wasn't going to let you get away again," he said with a smile giving her a hug.

"He also has another duty," Omino Sensei continued and Blake pulled away so that Omino Sensei could address Tori. "Young lady, when you return, you will test for your thunder ninja credentials."

Tori beamed at him and gave a proper half bow as she said, "Yes, Sensei," before throwing herself into his arms for a hug.

With that, various groups of ninja swarmed Blake and Tori giving them congratulations and expressing sadness at seeing them go. Dustin, Shane, Cam and Hunter stood back and watched them.

"They look happy," Cam commented.

Kira walked up and was hugging Tori and Blake. "Kira's going to move into Tori's after the summer. She's got accepted at Blue Bay University."

Shane snickered, "Tell your girlfriend that if she enrolls at the academy full time, she's got to wear the red uniform." As Tori predicted, Kira had tested as an Air ninja, but Watanabe Sensei had indulged her in letting her wear the grey practice uniform. Dustin laughed and Cam rolled his eyes.

Hunter threw a completely besotted look at Kira, "Would an old uniform of mine work? It would be in the thunder style, but at least there would be some red."

"Yeah, and the way Hunter's clothes keep ending up being worn by Kira, that might actually work," Leann said with a teasing grin walking into the conversation and into Cam's arms.

"She likes my clothes," Hunter shrugged.

The crowd around Blake and Tori was breaking up and the couple walked up to their friends being trailed by Kira, Kapri and Marah. Kira slipped over to Hunter's side and slipped an arm around his waist. Marah and Kapri were talking excitedly about going up to Washington to visit as they hadn't really had any time to actually look around and see anything the time they had been up there to kidnap the river ninja students.

"So, when do you go?" Cam asked.

"August eighteenth," Tori said. "I've already got my ticket and stuff arranged to move up to the school."

"I'm going to go out a couple of weeks after that, I promised Omino Sensei that I would assist in the final thunder students testing and graduation ceremony and I want to carefully go over both the curriculum at the thunder academy and what Hunter was doing at the wind academy," Blake said.

"We are very glad that you are taking this opportunity," Watanabe Sensei said as he and Omino Sensei approached the group of young ninjas, "I am sure that the river academy will benefit from having both Tori and Blake for the next little while."

"And you will be sorely missed here," Omino Sensei added.

Tori smiled at Blake and took his hand as she said, "We'll be back."

"You'd better," Shane muttered under his breath moving to give Tori a hug, "I don't know how long I can keep Dustin on the straight and narrow without you."

Cam and Leann hugged her next came next, "You can call anytime. When you convince them that they need a computer set up like ours, Lee and I can come visit."

Dustin hugged her hard and Marah and Kapri jumped on them making a four way hug with Tori in the middle.

"Take care of my bro," Hunter said after pulling Marah and Kapri off of Tori and Dustin so he could have a hug next.

Then, Tori was being pulled into Blake's arms. Someone had put on some music and couples were swaying on the deck and the beach. "You ready?" Tori breathed at Blake as she smiled up at him from the circle of his arms.

"With you, Tor," he said with a smile, "always."

End


End file.
